Splatoon: Secrets of the Inklings
by KitkattAttack
Summary: Molly had always thought she was human until she turned 14 and found out she was an orange Inkling. Together with the rest of the Squidbeak Splatoon, Captain Cuttlefish, and Agent 1 she must now try to find her way in Inkling society as well as unlock the secrets behind her origins and why she was left to be raised among humans.
1. A Lost Cause

_Hello fellow readers and fanfiction writers. Before I get started there is a few things I need to explain first..._

 _First off I actually don't own this game and most of my information comes from watching "Let's plays" and general research of the game, (I really do want to play this game though,) which could potentially mean inaccuracies of information, (I'm hoping some of you will tell me if that's the case that way I can fix them when they do occur.)_

 _Also fair warning there will be spoilers from the single player mode in this fanfiction. Not like "what the final boss is" spoilers, but spoilers none the less._

 _Thank you for reading and enjoy._

 **Chapter 1: A Lost Cause**

Marlin knew the mission had failed when the sound of a scream had rung through his ears, making his blood run cold.

Looking over at his partner, Ploosh, he could see in the green Inkling's emerald eyes the same signs of worry as he felt within himself, "That sounded like Inka, Marlin."

"I know" Marlin answered as he peered around the wall they were currently hiding behind, looking for the enemy they were fighting. Seeing no one he turned back to Ploosh, "The coast seems to be clear for now, let's see if we can track down the other two before the Octarians have a chance to."

Ploosh nodded in agreement and together they rushed out from cover and alternated between running in and out of safety and hiding in puddles of their own ink by shifting into their squid forms when signs of the enemy was evident. It took them a good hour's worth of searching before Marlin and Ploosh were able to find the other two.

"Psst... Marlin" Marlin turned and quickly spotted the deep blue eyes of Squil, the third member of their team, glittering in the gloom underneath a metal ramp they had recently gone over while in mid-search, "We're under here."

"But where's Inka?" Ploosh asked as he darted rapid nervous glances around the area.

"I'm right here stupid!" Inka, a purple eyed, purple haired, Inkling girl declared as she tried to climb out from under the ramp. She didn't get far, however, before she promptly grabbed her side and slumped down to the floor with gritted fangs.

Rushing towards her Marlin kneeled down next to where she had fallen and gently pulled her hand away from her side to reveal a deep gash where there was a black fluid oozing out of the wound.

"Inka you're bleeding!"

"It doesn't hurt that much Marlin."

"It doesn't matter, we can't finish the mission if one of the team members is injured, it's too risky." He said as Squil helped her get to her feet.

"But we're so close to saving the baby zapfish to quit now." Inka insisted as she tried to push Squil away from her so she could stand on her own.

"I'm sorry Inka but it's too..." Squil started to say before Marlin quickly covered his mouth from behind. He turned and glared at him for a few seconds before he saw Marlin pointing above them.

Following his gaze Squil, Ploosh and Inka looked up in time to see, much to their horror, a series of deep-treaded boots walking above them on the ramp they were hiding under. The thunderous sound they were making caused all four of them to shiver in fear until the last of them had left and the sound of their movements had died down into nothing.

"Octolings," Marlin whispered, "we have to get out of here." Cocking his ink gun he headed out first while Ploosh and Squil carried Inka between their two arms. It was then that Marlin also noticed Inka was limping and favoring her right leg. The same side her wound was on. He raised one of his eyebrows quizzically at her.

"I don't want to talk about Marlin. Let's just go and get out of here before the Octolings come back and find us," she responded to his voiceless question with purple eyes glaring and fangs bared.

Traveling through the Octarian base the team was slightly surprised to see not even a single Octarian or Octoling in sight. Even when they had reached the abort point, which was a special type of portal the team had left behind in case of an emergency so that they could leave the place quickly.

"You guys help Inka get through."

"I can do it myself!" Inka replied as she pushed the other two aside. The light coming off the portal had been dim until she had stepped onto it and it washed her in a bright green light. Once the light had died down the remaining trio could see that she had safely been teleported out of there.

"Ploosh..."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it" Ploosh responded as he also stepped onto the portal and was teleported out of there.

"Marlin you should go next."

"No Squil, I'm going last so that I can cover your guy's back. I've been doing these missions far longer than you three have and I know what I'm doing a lot better than you do."

"But Marlin-" Squil started to say when suddenly something hit the back of Marlin's head hard. Marlin reached behind with his free hand only to quickly pulled it back when he felt a stinging sensation on the tips of his fingers. Bringing them up to his orange eyes he quickly saw the cause of the pain was from the sticky purplish-pink ink that was now making his fingers stick to each other as well as sting. By this point the back of his head had already started to hurt as well.

"There they are!" Looking up Marlin saw five Octolings coming towards him and Squil. One or two of them had already fired off some shots, of which one successfully had hit Squil in the face. Crying out in surprise he quickly wiped it away but Marlin could see that the pain was already setting in from the direct contact with the Octarian ink.

They were out of time.

"Squil go! I'll be right behind you." Marlin shouted at him as he prepared to guard him from more shots from the oncoming Octolings.

"But..."

"I said go!" Marlin repeated as he shoved Squil at the portal. Stumbling onto it Squil barely had time to turn around before the light surrounded him and teleported him as well out of there. A look of horror was plain on his face before he disappeared.

Slowly backing towards the portal Marlin prepared to escape as well when the Octolings finally got out some more good shots with their ink guns which forced Marlin to the ground in pain. Blinking through tears he saw that they were now almost on top of him. It was then that he knew there was no way he could get through the portal in his current condition without risking letting the Octolings follow him through and putting the others in danger.

He now not only had no time but also no more options about what to do, except one.

"I'm sorry about this guys," Marlin whispered softly as he raised his ink gun and started to hit the edge of the portal with the butt of it.

At first the hits seemed to be doing nothing but after the fourth hit the portal's light started to flicker and after the fifth time it died completely proving that the portal was no longer functional.

Smiling mischievously Marlin looked up to see that one of the Octolings already had an ink gun trained on his head. The kelp on its helmet told him right away that she must have been some form of captain. Smiling even wider Marlin push himself up partially from the floor before addressing his captor, "Thought you guys had seen the last of me, didn't you?"

Instead of answering him she promptly shot him straight in the face causing him to fall on his side, unable to move from where he laid. As Marlin started to lose consciousness he was just able to hear the conversation the Octoling who had shot him was having with another Octoling and what he heard made his blood run even colder than before.

"Run ahead to main headquarters and report to Octavious that we have finally captured Agent 3 and we are bringing him in even as we speak."


	2. What To Do Now?

_Author's notes: Not a bad opening for being only my second fan fiction and based on a game I've never even played huh?_

 _I gotta admit I was at first planning on beginning this after I had purchased the game (as well as the console since I don't even own a WiiU) but after doing more research I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to find the information that I needed since there are tons of people doing videos on this game right now._

 _Anyway enough blabbing, more writing._

 _Read and enjoy!_

 **Chapter 2: What To Do Now?**

"That's it, I'm out of here! I have to go meet up with someone anyway."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Scram!" Screamed Moe, a small clownfish with a big attitude that resided in the hair of the shy and timid Annie, who was shopkeeper of "Cooler Heads" head gear shop. Whenever customers entered into "Cooler Heads" it usually only took about a minute before he started to mouth off about something, which was usually the customers themselves. Many had often wondered how Annie was even able to handle the annoying little goby.

Stomping out of the shop Squil immediately headed out of the Booyah Base shopping mall and out towards the main hub area of Inkopolis, where many of the Inklings gathered when not shopping or fighting in the Turf Wars, where they could chat, eat, or simply hang out with friends.

Squil currently however was not interested in the hub area and was instead in the progress of crossing over to the other side where the entrance to his team's secret home base was. Which looked to most Inklings simply like a sewer grate.

He had almost made it across when a familiar black and white cat stepped into his path and stopped him, "Meow, hello Squil. It's good to see you around."

Trying not to seem too startled by his sudden appearence Squil smiled wide at him and answered, "Oh, hey Judd, nice to see you too."

"So how's Marrrlin? Will your team be able to play in the Turf Wars again soon, meow?"

Squil's smile instantly faded, "I'm sorry Judd but Marlin is still sick and it may be a few more days before our team can compete again."

"Oh, mew, that's too bad. I hope he gets better soon because other teams are starting to wonderrrr. It's only a matter of time before those ideas they're getting will turn into rumorrrs. Purr, I'm sure you and your team don't want that."

"No Judd we definitely don't want that."

"Grrreat! Cat-cha later Squil." The cat then climbed up onto a red cushion on a special stand divoted for him since he was after all the judge and gamekeeper for all ink battle competitions. As soon as he was up there he immediately fell fast asleep and started to snore rather loudly.

Grimancing slighty Squil quickly covered his ears to try to block the noise and rushed over to the sewer grate. Taking a quick glance to see if anyone could see him he changed into his squid form and slid between the bars of the grate and down the pipe.

The journey took only a few minutes before Squil slid up through a different grate on the surface of a floating wasteland which was connected to Inkopolis above by various pipeworks. When Squil had arrived in this place for the first time he had been told the place was called Octo Valley but sometimes he wondered if it originally had a different name at one point before their people had arrived here as well as their enemies, the Octarians.

Turning away from looking over the lifeless place Squil walked over to a ramshackle building. When he walked into it he found that the other two members of his team had already showed up.

"Took you awhile to get here," Inka responded as she absent-mindedly played with one of her tentacles while laying on a ripped up sofa.

"Sorry about that, I got way laid by Judd. Apparently some of the other teams are starting to wonder if our "Marlin being ill" story is even true."

"Are you squidding me? Great, it's only been three days and already the other teams are trying to kick our team out of the games. Without Marlin we don't stand a chance!"

"And the award for the most dramatic Inkling goes to...Ploosh!" Inka replied as she held a pillow like a trophy in her hands. Ploosh immediately rolled his eyes at her when she held the pillow out to him.

"Don't worry buckos, I'm sure Marlin is fine and will eventually find a way back to us"

Turning quickly towards the source of the voice the trio each soluted in turn to the owner of the voice who was Captain Cuttlefish, their leader and trainer. Aside from Marlin, who had been working under the Captain for two years, the rest of them had only been working under him for a few months and his strange ability to catch them unaware still never ceased to amaze them.

"How can you be so sure Captain?" Squil asked.

"I've known Marlin since he first started out at age 14 and I know he will do anything in his power to escape those Octarians."

"I hope you're right Captain," Inka said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest after she tossed the pillow she had been holding back onto the sofa, "but that still doesn't prevent the other teams from trying to disqualify us for not having four members on our team."

"Actually I may have a way to solve that little problem."

"How so?"

"I just recently received word from Agent 1 of a possible new recruit she had recently found."

"Agent 1 is still okay?"

"Yes Squil, at least for now. So far as we can tell the Octarians haven't found where she has been hiding these last few months, but who knows how long that will last."

"What did she tell you about the possible recruit?"

"It is a young girl who will be turning 14 tomorrow"

"Tomorrow huh?" Inka muttered, "that doesn't give us a lot of time to find her before another team tries to recruit her."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Ploosh asked as he stood up from the stool he had been sitting on the whole time, "Captain where does the Inkling girl live?"

"Ah, see that's the thing young Ploosh. It's a bit of a complicated situation I'm afraid."

"What makes it so complicated Captain?"

"She doesn't actually live in Inkopolis or the surrounding areas."

"Then where does she live Captain?" Squil asked with a puzzled expression.

Instead of answering him Captain Cuttlefish turned to face Inka, "Inka, what do you know about the creatures that lived here before us?"

"Us ourselves or our species in general?"

"The later Inka."

"Well in school we were told it was a primitive species known as the Landdwellers. For many centuries they covered the entire surface world until the seas started to rise and they all drowned. After the extinction of their race our people took what they left behind and claimed it as our own."

"All of what you said was true, except for one part."

"Only one?" Ploosh asked sarcastically before seeing Inka raise a threatening fist at him.

Grabbing hold of her arm Squil slowly made her lower it, "Well if that's the case then what part did she get wrong?"

"Not all of the Landdwellers drowned in the sea. Some got away to higher ground and a few who had been caught by the water knew how to swim and made it to higher ground as well."

"So the Landdwellers are still alive?"

"A small number compared to what it used to be, but yes Squil they're still alive as a species. Currently the largest colony resides in a place known as the Highlands."

"But what does this have to do with the Inkling girl Agent 1 told you about?" Inka demanded, her patience wearing thin.

"Agent 1 is currently residing with the Landdwellers."

Several seconds of silence immediately followed this statement.

"Why in the world is she there?" Inka shrieked, breaking the mentioned silence.

"When we lost Agent 2 on that solo mission several months ago I had a sinking suspicion that Agent 1 and Agent 3 would be next so I sent Agent 1 undercover until I could confirm what I thought was going on. I tried to do the same with Agent 3 but he refused stating he if he was going down he would rather do it fighting than hiding like a coward."

"Sounds like Cousin Marlin to me," Ploosh remarked with a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Two days ago Agent 1 sent me a message stating that so far there had been no signs of the Octarians where she was and that she believes she had found an Inkling girl who had been raised by a kind female Landdweller. She didn't leave too much more information other than that."

"But it doesn't make sense. I mean how can she live with them if our people versus theirs is so different. We don't even look like them!"

"That, Inka, is something you'll have to find out on your own."

"Wait! We're going there?!"

"I sent a message back to Agent 1 that I would send a extraction team to get the girl as well as herself if she so wished."

"But didn't Inka just point out that we would stick out like a sore thumb?"

"I thought you would say that so I had your wrist communicators tweaked a little bit to solve that problem." As he said this he pulled out from his ragged clothes their communicators and held it out to the three of them. Slightly cautious they each took their own communicator which were marked with their respective colors.

"They look pretty much the same Captain," Ploosh said as he strapped the device onto his wrist, "what's so different about them?"

"They now have the ability to mimic the appearance of other species. Currently they are set to mimic the appearance of a Landdweller for each of you."

"What do you mean by mimic?"

Inka turned around so that she could give him a swat in the back of his head only to let out a small scream of fear instead before covering her mouth with her hands in disbelief. Puzzled at her sudden reaction Squil turned around as well.

In general Ploosh still looked the same but there was definite changes to his appearance as well. The tentacles he had tied up in the standard boy fashion had taken on the appearance of long fibers that still had the same bright tint as before but now looked like it flowed into one main form instead of individual tentacles, which drooped far lower than his normal tentacles would have. His once pointy ears were now rounded and laid flat against the sides of his head and his black markings around his eyes were completely gone. His eyes, just like his tentacles...or rather what used to be his tentacles, still retained the same bright green quality to them.

"What's wrong guys? Is there something in my teeth?" Ploosh asked which only made Inka squeak behind her hands as she saw that he no longer had his three sharp fangs and his teeth were completely flat and even, "okay guys this is not funny!"

"Maybe you should look in a mirror to figure out the punchline." Squil suggested to him.

Using a large piece of reflective metal as a mirror Ploosh let out a slight gasp in shock before he could stop himself, "That's really cool and creepy all at the same time," reaching up to his ponytail he touched it with his hands, "It still feels the same though."

"That's because it only changes what you look like bucko, not what you are physically."

"So in other words don't let anyone touch your head or your ears. That doesn't sound too hard."

"The device also only works if you are in your humanoid form. If you change into your squid form everyone will see you as a squid."

"Okay minimize physical contact with others and don't change into squid form where anyone could see us. Is there anything else we should know Captain?"

"Yes, whatever you do don't let those communicators get wet. As soon as they do they'll short-circuit and no longer work and your true forms will be revealed."

"Oh goody, now we have to avoid all forms of water." Inka responded in a sarcastic manner before flopping onto the sofa while covering her eyes with her arm, "somebody just splat me now."

Shaking his head sadly at her Squil turned back to face the Captain, "When do we head out sir?"

"Tomorrow morning, at dawn."


	3. A Girl Named Molly

_Author notes: Fair warning hints as to spoilers actually start up in this chapter, (if you know what you're looking for that is,) and will become a lot more obvious in the next following chapters._

 _Also I would like to thank Sunset-on-the-water for being the first person to write a review for any of my fan fictions, (I'll try to work on those comma errors you mentioned.) If you have any questions about my fan fiction feel free to leave them with your comments below._

 _Enjoy and happy 4th of July._

 **Chapter 3: A Girl Named Molly**

When she had found herself face down on the floor of her room Molly at first didn't really give it much thought. After all she had fallen out of bed before, although normally she would have woken up when she did. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she looked behind her and saw her bed was several feet away from where she laid.

Shaking her head she did a quick double take and realized that she really hadn't imagine the distance and her bed really was, at least, six feet from where she was currently was on the floor. In fact the way she was oriented made it almost looked she had crawled across the floor on her stomach to where she was now.

"What on earth...?" She started to say as she tried to stand up only to fall back down on her stomach, banging her chin into the ground in the progress, "Owww!"

"Molly? Are you alright?" Called out an all too familiar voice from the other side of her bedroom door.

"Yeah Mom, I'm fine," Molly called back while she tried to figure out why her legs seemed to be spontaneously not working.

"Are you sure? It sounds like you just fell."

"Um, yeah, I just fell out of bed."

"Oh! Molly are you alright?" She started to open the door.

"No Mom, don't come...in." Molly tried to say but it was too late and her mother had already saw her on the floor.

Crouching down next to her Lily Walker, Molly's adoptive mother, clicked her tongue in a sympathetic manner, "So, did you really fall out of bed or is there a different explanation for why you are on the floor like a snake?"

"I was not pretending to be a snake!" She declared as she tried to get up only to once again not have her legs be able to support her. Luckily for her Lily caught her before she could face-plant into the carpet.

"Molly what's wrong with your legs?" She asked as worry crept into her voice.

"Nothing, their just a little weak. They're actually feeling better now." Even as she said it feeling in her legs did seem to be returning and in less then a minute they felt normal again, "See?" She twirled around in a circle for emphasis.

"Are you sure? I'm sure if your not up to it we can move..."

"No!" Molly cried out, accidentally startling her mother, "I mean it won't mean the same thing if my birthday party wasn't on my birthday."

"Oh! All right Molly we won't move it. You're right that you only turn 14 once in your life," she held her arms out to Molly in an offer of a hug.

Molly gladly accepted it and as she did so she breathed in deep the smell of seaweed and sea breeze, a constant smell Lily had since she worked at the Marine biology lab an hour's drive away from their house. She loved smelling the smell on Lily's brilliant red hair even though it also symbolized something that took her mother away from her.

"So, any plans this morning kiddo?"

Molly's eyes grew wide as she pulled away from Lily and looked to see that her clock read 10:23 on it in bright red numbers.

"Oh shoot! I'm supposed to meet up with Cal in seven minutes!" turning her mother around she started to push her towards the door, "Mom you need to go so I can change."

"Oh dear, only 14 and already trying to order her mother around? What will you be like when you're an adult?"

"Mom!" Molly whined as she tried to push harder to get her to move faster.

"Oh all right Molly, you win." She said giggling as she walked towards the door and shut it behind her.

Once the door had clicked shut Molly rushed over to her dresser and grabbed a pair of shorts and a t-shirt which was a souvenir from Lily's work. Pale blue with an octopus, a giant squid, and a Killer whale swimming across a watery background with several other sea creatures farther off in the background as well. Grabbing a bag from the closet she tossed these two items into it which also contained several bath towels as well as sunscreen, spare under clothing and swimming goggles.

Once she had changed into a different pair of shorts and a shirt she slung the bag over her shoulders and was about to walk out the door when she stopped at the full length mirror she had resting up against the wall.

Her dark rusty brown colored eyes stared back out from a face framed with hip-length ginger colored hair that tended to sweep out in front of her shoulders instead of behind. Her skin was pale currently, but she knew a few weeks in the sun would easily make her look less like a ghost and more like a normal girl.

Taking one last look at herself she sighed and walked out of her bedroom and down the hall towards the kitchen.

When Molly had entered the kitchen she found Lily sitting at the table staring at a newspaper with a mug of mint tea in her hands. Briefly nodded at her she headed straight for the back door and had the doorknob in her hand when Lily called her.

Gritting her teeth Molly turned around, "Yeah Mom?"

"Did you eat something yet?"

Her stomach answered the question before Molly had a chance to, "But if I don't go now she'll be waiting for me."

"Well than I suggest you find something to eat quickly"

"Ugh!" Walking over to the cabinets she grabbed a can down and removed the lid before she plunked a fork into it to eat. Halfway through the can she happened to glance up to see an extremely puzzled look on Lily's face, "What is it now? I'm eating something."

"Yes, I can see that," she responded as she continued to stare.

As she placed another forkful in her mouth Molly suddenly noticed the strange texture of what she was eating. Chewing it longer soon also brought on a very strong taste as well.

Looking down at the can Molly nearly spat out the mouthful she currently had when she saw that she had grabbed a can of tuna and had been eating it straight from the can.

Lily Walker was a vegetarian at heart so when she found Molly she had raised her as such. The only reason the tuna was even in the house was whenever a stray cat ended up on their doorstep Lily always wanted something to feed them with, so she kept a small store of tuna for such occasions.

Fighting the urge to gag Molly had to swallow multiple times before what she had would even go down. Once it had thoughts of throwing up continued to come to mind which she repeatedly had to suppress.

Placing the can on the counter she didn't dare look over at her mother in fear of what her reaction would be. With cheeks burning she slipped out the backdoor and started to run. She didn't stop running until she was long out of sight of the house.

As soon as she came into sight of the meeting place, a long since abandoned pool which surprisingly enough was still well maintained, Molly was able to see that her friend was already there, sitting on one the worn benches. Pulling the gate open drew the other other girl's attention who waved at her until she came into earshot, "Hey Molly!"

Looking over at her while she set her bag down on the ground Molly smiled back, "Hello Cal."

Up until three months ago Molly didn't really have anyone she would have called a friend, until she met Cal. Cal wasn't her real name but she insisted that she preferred to be called that instead of her real name. Cal was a lot older than Molly since she was about 19 versus Molly who was now 14, not that the two of them really cared about that. She had long black hair that was dyed pink at the tips and was tied up in a loose ponytail that went slightly past her waist. Her warm gentle brown eyes and her constant smile on her face always seemed to brighten up Molly's day when she was around. Today was not an exception.

"So, you excited for tonight?"

"How could I not? I'm now officially 14, my mom is setting up an amazing party and I get to hang out with my best friend in the whole world for several hours while I wait."

"Oh good," Cal sighed in relief, " because when I saw you coming around the fence line I could have sworn I saw you about to burst into tears."

"Oh that," Molly replied as the mood from earlier came over her, "I've just had a bad start to the day that's all."

"What happened?"

"Well when I woke up this morning I found myself on the floor."

"People fall out of bed all the time Molly."

"I don't think most people find themselves halfway across the room Cal."

"What? Wait, seriously?"

Molly nodded, "Yeah, and my legs for some reason couldn't support me so I kept falling back onto the ground. It almost felt like they had turned to jelly in my sleep."

"Jelly huh?" A mischievous grin started to form on her face, "Strawberry or grape?"

"Cal, it's not funny. My mom tried to cancel the party because of it. Of course who knows what she'll say when I get home."

"Wait, there was more than the jelly legs incident this morning?"

Molly nodded again, "In my rush to meet up with you...I accidentally started to chow down on tuna fish right in front of my mom."

"Um, isn't your mom a vegetarian?"

"Yes, and so am I!" Molly answered while trying to fight back tears, "or at least I thought I was. Oh Cal, what's happening to me?"

"Puberty?" She suggested with a slight giggle as she tried to lighten the mood.

Molly reached into her bag and angrily threw a towel into Cal's face before walking over to the edge of the pool and diving into it.

When Molly was little water had terrified her, until she had discovered how fun it could be. Nowadays many had jokingly called her a fish that lived on land, not only because of how she could swim very well but also due to the fact she could easily hold her breath for five minutes.

Once the need for air finally did come to her she slowly rose to the surface. Surfacing she found Cal hovering near the edge. Not close enough to touch her but close enough that she had to dodge water droplets that flew up when Molly had come up. Unlike Molly, Cal never did learned how to swim and most areas like this one tended to make her edgy. The fact that she was as close as she was now only showed how much she really did care for her as a friend.

"Sorry, that was a little uncalled for wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was." Molly said as she continued to glare at her.

"Look, I know you love your adoptive mother very much and I get why you wouldn't want to disappoint her, but Molly you can't always be expected to respect your mother's every single wish. Kids your age are usually trying to figure out who they are, which is not necessarily what their parents expect them to be."

"So what you're saying is I don't have to be what my mom says to be?"

"Yes! I mean no, I mean...ugh! Oh forget it," Cal replied as her cheeks started to turn red.

Molly couldn't stop herself from laughing at Cal as she stumbled for the right words. Swimming over to the edge she grabbed the towel she had thrown at Cal and quickly dried off her hair, "were you worried about me under there?"

"Nah, with that orange hair it was pretty easy to spot you under the water."

"It's ginger Cal, not orange."

She leaned over as if to get a better look, "Looks pretty orange to me."

Using her arm Molly sent a sheet of water at her which she dodged with a surprised shriek while Molly climbed out of pool.

After using one of the restrooms to change into some dry clothes Molly followed Cal through the gate which they shut behind themselves. As they walked down the sidewalk, however, a sudden noise instantly drew Molly's attention. Looking around she tried to find the source but the sound had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

"Molly are you coming?" Cal yelled.

"Yeah, I'm coming." Molly called back up to her. Finally coming to the conclusion that she had imagined the sound she ran to catch up with Cal as she turned at the corner to head into downtown.

As soon as the two girl were out of earshot three kids tumbled out of a bush against the pool fence line and landed in a heap on the sidewalk. One being a girl with purple hair while the other two were boys, one with blue hair while the other green.

"Ploosh! You nearly blew our cover!"

"I'm sorry! But those flowers in those bushes made my nose really itchy and well...I couldn't hold it in anymore, I'm sorry Inka!"

"If they had found out..."

"Well they didn't, so it doesn't matter," Squil looked down the path the girls had gone down, "do you think that's the girl Agent 1 was referring to?"

"I think the older one said the younger one was called Molly, but could she really be an Inkling?"

"Only one way to find out," Squil said as he headed down the street with Inka and Ploosh following quickly behind him.

As the trio rushed out of sight a different person, who had seen the whole thing in the bushes across the street, giggled as she held a gun full of purplish-pink ink, "Not long now..."


	4. Not So Good First Encounters

_Author's notes: okay, a little explanation about this chapter._

 _This chapter was originally part of what will now be chapter 5. When I had written it out, (I tend to write chapters roughly by hand so the typing is quicker,) I realized the chapter would be far too long, so I decided to split it into two parts. Because of this chapter 4 is going to be shorter but chapter 5 will still be pretty long nonetheless._

 _Over the last couple of days something has been brought to my attention and I would like it to be made perfectly clear the situation. Yes I have seen all the way through single player mode and I know how it ends, (I believe I said something about it on the first chapter,) I'm however not going reveal the final boss for that mode nor is the final boss from single player mode ever going to be involved in this fan fiction._

 _I would like to thank all the support this story has had so far. Currently there is over 770 views so far on it. Also don't forget if you have any questions for this story leave them in the comments below after you have read the chapter, whether they pertain to the current chapter or not. Most likely I'll try to answer them here in the Author's notes, (unless they'll potentially lead to spoilers that is.)_

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 4: Not So Good First Encounters**

It only took a few hours for Molly to noticed that she and Cal were being followed.

The first time she noticed was while Cal was perusing through dresses. Molly had wandered over into another section not dominated by pink and frilly laces to prevent herself from gaging when she had run right into a boy in a white shirt with black long sleeves and large goggles resting on top of his head.

"Hey! Watch where..." she started to say when she noticed that his hair, even his eyebrows, was a deep royal blue color. The blue hair was currently tied up in a ponytail with a colorful elastic band but if it wasn't it probably would have been shoulder length easily.

"Cool hair dye job, but how did you do the eyebrows?"

"Huh?" He asked, staring at her in shock. His eyes, an only slightly paler blue then his hair, were growing wider by the second.

"There you are!" Rushing over to them a boy with emerald green hair in the same hairstyle came over while Molly and the first boy were trying to get up from the floor, "Inka and I were wondering what had..." he froze in his tracks when he saw Molly. "Uh...?"

"Oh hey, you dyed your hair too! Although I gotta say I think I like the blue better."

"Um...bye!" Quickly running back the way he had come from, the green haired boy was quickly out of sight with the blue haired boy only a few steps behind him.

"Hey," Molly turned around to find Cal standing behind her, "where did you wander off to?"

"I was looking over here when I ran into a boy, a boy with blue hair."

"Blue hair huh?" She said smiling, "Next you'll be saying that you met little green people."

"No, but another boy showed up with green hair."

"Right," she said not believing a single word Molly said. She placed her hand on Molly's shoulder as she lead them in the direction of the store's exit, "well I think its high time we went to another store. I think the style of this store is starting to get to you."

As the two of them traveled between the different shops in town Molly had on multiple occasions seen brief signs of the blue haired, or the green haired, boy. Often these sightings were due to them not them ducking out of sight in time before she saw them, making her wonder several times in those few hours why they were following her and Cal.

She finally got fed up with it while the two of them were in a grocery store staring at assorted food items. Glancing over to her left Molly saw not only the blue haired boy but also the green haired boy and a girl who had dark purple hair as long as her own ginger hair. The three of them seemed to be chatting about something at the end of the aisle, but they no longer seemed to be hiding their presence from her.

Nudging Cal's shoulder Molly indicated the three kids, "Hey Cal, do you recognize those three?"

Once she had taken a good look at them for a few seconds Cal shook her head, "No, why do you ask?"

"I believe they are following us and have been doing so for quite awhile."

"We would they do that?"

Molly shrugged, "I don't know."

"Well we might be getting our question answered because they're coming over here right now,"

"What?" Turning around Molly quickly found herself nearly nose to nose with the blue haired boy. He immediately jumped back startled by her sudden movement and accidentally backed into the other two who were behind him. The girl made a sound similar to a growl before shoving the boy forwards, causing him to almost run into Molly once again.

"You sure are bumping into me a lot today."

"Um, yeah, sorry about that," the blue haired apologized, his face turning pink. "So your name is Molly, right?"

"It depends, who are you and why are you following me and Cal?"

"I-I-I can't say who I am," He stammered.

"Than how can I trust you?"

"Um..." his ability to speak seemed to be rapidly deteriorating while his face and ears were turning redder by the second.

"Squil, maybe this was a bad idea," the green haired boy said as he took a step back.

The girl instantly turned on him, "Ploosh what were you thinking? You just told her Squil's name!" Her face immediately turned red afterwards, "Oops."

"Inka! It's not...ah man!" The boy called Squil exclaimed as he quickly realized his own slip up.

"Squil? Ploosh? Inka? What kind of names are those?" Molly asked as both she and Cal, who seemed stuck between being terrified and being shocked at the three's presence, started to back away from them.

"Their our names!" The one called Ploosh declared.

Inka glared at him, "You're not making this situation any better Ploosh!"

"Well how much more worse could it get?"

"Are you trying to jinx it?"

"No, but I'm not sure I really like how you're trying to treat me."

"You are a ten-limbed walking disaster waiting to happen!"

"Well you're a hot blooded squid that every Inkling boy is too chicken to ask you on a date due to them fearing your wrath!"

"Clumsy!"

"Irritating!"

"Klutz!"

"Moody!"

"Guys!"

"What?!" Inka and Ploosh yelled simultaneously as they turned to face their partner.

"They're getting away!" Squil said as the three of them watched the two girls run around a corner and out of sight.

"What? No! We can't lose sight of her. She's our mission!"

"Well tell her that!" Ploosh remarked as he rushed past Inka to follow Squil who was already running down the aisle.

"Molly, where are we going?" Cal asked between panting breaths as they started to run down a different aisle.

"I don't know, but anywhere is better than here with those creeps."

"Good point," she answered just as Inka came around from the opposite end of the aisle and blocked their path.

"Stop in the name of the Squidbeak Splatoon!" Inka yelled as she raised what looked like a water gun and aimed it at them.

"Duck!" Cal screamed as Inka pulled the trigger and a purple stream of liquid came out of the gun which arced over their lowered heads and headed straight towards the two boys who had just come around the corner. Squil, who was hit straight in the face, was knocked backwards into Ploosh which forced the two of them to land on the ground in a tangled heap of arms and legs.

"Guys!" Inka yelped as she rushed past Molly and Cal to help the two struggling boys.

Looking at the trio for a brief moment with slightly puzzled glances Molly and Cal quickly got up from the floor and rushed towards the exit. As they were about to escape through the sliding doors of the store Cal suddenly fell to the floor, landing on her hands and knees. She cried out loud, causing Molly to stop halfway through the doors, "Cal! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she answered quickly sitting up. An awkward monuvere since her right foot seemed to be stuck to the floor, "just go, I'll catch up with you at the party."

"But what about-"

"Don't worry about it, I think I know a way to deal with those three. Just go!"

Hesitating for a second she nodded in agreement and ran out the doors and out of sight. Once Molly was gone Cal went to work on freeing her shoe.

After several failed attempts to get themselves apart from each other Squil and Ploosh finally resorted to briefly change into their squid forms, allowing them to slid apart from each other before returning to their humanoid forms. Their humanoid forms briefly shimmered as their Landdweller disguises reactivated. "That was embarrassing."

"Yeah, let's pretend that never happened,"

"I couldn't agree more," Inka said as she crouched over Squil, who was still laying on the ground.

"What was with that anyway? We are not supposed to use our weapons in public!"

"I'm sorry, I overreacted and botched this mission," She lowered her head in shame.

"You could say that again cadet."

Looking up the trio quickly found themselves in the shadow of a very irritated Cal, who was currently glaring at them with crossed arms over her chest and her right shoe held in her hand by the laces. "Please tell me you are not the extraction team the captain said he was going to send."

"And if we are?" Ploosh asked puzzled.

"Then you clearly need some work on your retrieval skills."

"We didn't think she would freak out like that."

"You've been tailing her for most of the morning like a group of stalkers. How do you think she should have reacted?"

"Not to sound rude or anything but who are you anyway?"

She cringed, "Are you kidding me? You really have no clue who I am?"

Inka stood up, "No, I know exactly who you are...Agent 1."

"What? you're Agent 1?" Ploosh asked, eyes widening.

Cal rolled her eyes at him, "Yes cadet, I'm Agent 1. The reason I look like a Landdweller is because I'm using the same technology that you are to blend in with the current populace." She held up her wrist to show a communicator with pink markings.

"I'm still not convinced. She could have stolen it off of Agent 1."

Cal gave him a glare before she leaped forward at him. Mid-leap she shifted from a girl to a black squid with pink markings on the tips of her tentacles and hit Ploosh square in the chest. As soon as he hit the ground she changed back but didn't get off his chest as she grinned at him, "was that enough proof cadet?"

"I'm good," he wheezed.

"Agent 1, I hope you didn't come to lecture us."

"No, I didn't Cadet Squil," she climbed off of Ploosh who let out a sigh of relief, "but first I must ask, where is Agent 3?"

Squil swallowed nervously before answering, "Marlin was captured by the Octarians while on mission to rescue a baby Zapfish,"

"When did this happen?"

"Only a few days ago Agent 1. He sacrificed himself in order to save us."

She sighed, "that certainly sounds like something he would do."

"That's why when you mentioned a potential new recruit the captain jumped at the opportunity. Molly was who you were referring to in your message right?"

"Yes, but I'm almost certain she has no clue what in reality she is and really does think she is a Landdweller."

"How can that be, and how is she going to handle it when she does find out Agent 1?"

"I don't know Cadet Inka but honestly you three have bigger problems than that."

"What do you mean?"

"You've been followed cadets,"

"By who?"

"Not by whom, by what," walking over to where she had dropped her shoe she carefully picked it up and showed to them the purplish-pink goo that was now coating the bottom of it.

"An Octoling?"

"Actually most likely there's two of them. They very rarely work alone."

"But how did they find us so quickly? We only showed up this morning."

"They probably been here the whole time trying to hunt me down Cadet Squil. With Agent 2 having been lost several months ago and now the recent capture of Agent 3 it only makes sense they would now put their focus on getting me."

"So you don't think they'll try to go after Molly?"

Cal's eyes grew wide with fear, "Oh great squid gods above us," she ran towards the store's exit while unslinging a pack she had from off on her back.

"Wait, what's wrong?" Squil asked, chasing after her with the other two following closely behind him.

"I'm a fool of a squid! I told Molly to go on ahead and now with Octolings around it's only a matter of time before they find out that she is an Inkling and splat her," as she continued to speak she unzipped her pack to reveal a Splattershot, an empty ink tank, a harness for the tank and a spare pair of shoes, "we have to stop them at all costs. Not only to save Molly but also to protect the humans that live here in the Highlands."

"Alright! Let's do this!" Ploosh shouted in excitement before an expression of puzzlement came across his face, "wait a minute, Agent 1 what on earth is a human?"

It took all of Cal's self control not to turn around and shoot him in the face with her Splattershot.


	5. Party of Disaster

_Author's notes: I hope you guys like long chapters because this ended up being far longer then I had previously planned._

 _Also I'm sad to say this will probably be the last chapters in which humans will actually be present in the story. From this point on the story will mostly take place in Inkopolis and Octo Valley._

 _Two days ago I'm happy to say this story reached over a thousand views and is steadily still climbing. Thanks for all the support thus far and don't forget to review and leave any questions you have in the comments below._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 5: Party of Disaster**

As she neared the street her house was on Molly started to notice that she didn't feel particularly too well. Her breathing had become difficult and she was sweating like she had run a marathon instead of only a few street blocks. Slowing down to a walk had only made more symptoms apparent as her stomach gurgled like she had eaten something bad and her hands started to shake badly as well as be slick with sweat.

By the time she had stumbled into her backyard she had become so weak that she nearly ran right into her mother before she noticed her.

"Molly! Where have you...?" She stopped mid-sentence when she saw how ill she looked, "Molly are you okay? What's wrong kiddo?"

"Its okay Mom," she mumbled before slumping down into Lily's arms, "I'm just a little tired, that's all."

Lily brushed her hair bangs away from her forehead which was covered in sweat, making her hair stick to it, "Molly you have a fever and you don't seem to be able to stand on your own. You need to go to your room and rest so that you can get better."

"But what about..." Molly started to say but she didn't have the energy to finish her question.

"You'll see no one young lady, now off with you," guiding her through the house Lily helped Molly into her bed and tucked her in as she kissed her on the forehead. A few seconds after Molly had closed her eyes she started to moan causing Lily to bite her lip in worry as she closed the door behind her.

As Lily Walker stepped onto the back porch she looked up in time to see Cal, Squil, Inka, and Ploosh come through the back gate with their ink weapons in hand and ink tanks strapped to their backs with different colored ink for each of them. As soon as Cal had spotted her she rushed towards her.

"Miss. Walker have seen Molly?"

"Yes I have Callie," she answered making Cal wince inwardly at the fact that she had said her full name in front of the others. It was too late now to prevent them from figuring out her true identity, "but she'll be seeing no one today since she has come down with a fever."

"She has a fever?"

Lily hesitated before answering, "yes."

"Does she have stomach pains, seem delirious, and is really weak?"

"Yes," fear came over her eyes.

"I must see her!"

"No, you will not!" She responded as she blocked the door, "especially with that thing," she then pointed at Cal's Splattershot.

"What if I left it out here?"

"The answer is still no."

"You don't understand Miss. Walker. This could be life or death for Molly."

"What could she possibly have that could kill her Callie?"

Before she could come up with a way to explain a scream rang out from inside the house.

"Molly!" Sliding underneath one of Lily's outstretched arms while Lily was still distracted by the scream she rushed into the house cocking her Splattershot as she went.

"Callie Inklington you get back here...wait no, stop you three!" She yelled as Squil, Inka, and Ploosh slipped past her as well. As soon as they were gone too she slumped down into a wooden bench and moaned as she closed her eyes, "Why did I even bother? Kids never listen to adults."

It didn't take long for Cal to find Molly's bedroom and force the door open with a swift kick. What she did find scared her more then countless hordes of Octarian troops.

Large portions of the room were covered in Octarian ink and as Cal had figured there was a female Octoling standing in the center of the room, aiming her weapon at a corner which hadn't been covered yet. Cowering in the corner was Molly, who was currently trying to use a blanket to try to protect herself from the ink.

"Cal!" She cried out as soon as she spotted Cal in the doorway.

Unfortunately for Cal the Octoling had also noticed her presence.

Ducking out of view she watched an ink blob sail past her face and splatter the opposite side wall of the hall, sending ink droplets all over the place. Covering her face with her arm she winced as she felt the drops burn the skin on her arm.

"Cal- I mean Agent 1 are you alright?"

Taking her arm away from her eyes she found Squil crouching beside her while the other two were taking turns shooting around the door at the Octoling. "I'm fine Cadet Squil, honestly I'm more worried about Molly than myself."

Before he could say anything a screech of defeat followed by the sound of a wet sounding explosion announced the demise of the Octoling in the room. Walking carefully Inka and Ploosh stepped into the room.

"Molly?" Cal called out as she quickly stood up and peered around the door. As soon as she saw Ploosh help her up from the corner and her ink soaked sheets she felt a great wave of relief wash over her.

The feeling, however, was short lived.

"What on earth was that thing?!" Molly nearly yelled at Cal, "that thing nearly tried to kill me!"

"It didn't nearly try, Molly, to Spl- I mean kill you. If we hadn't shown up it would have successfully killed you."

She quickly turned towards Squil, "I didn't ask you, I asked Cal!"

"Don't attack him Molly. He was simply following orders when he and the other two had been following us this morning."

"Orders? What orders?"

"To retrieve you from here."

She froze, "Why would they do that Cal?"

Cal turned pale, "Molly there's something you must know about yourself. You are...not human."

"What do you mean Cal?" She asked as she tried to step back only to place her foot in blue ink and become trapped. "What do you mean I'm not human?"

She hesitated as she chose her next words carefully, "When I first came here I thought you were human but as I came to know you I noticed you were different than the others and yet, in a sense, you seemed familiar to me. Earlier this week it finally dawned on me why that is."

"Which was what?" She said as she struggled to free her foot.

"You're are an Inkling Molly."

She stared, eyes wide, "I'm a what?"

Using his ink gun Squil created a safe path for himself so that he could get over to where she was. Once he had he pried her shoe out of the ink allowing her to hop away to a spot that was free of ink, "an Inkling Molly."

"What on earth is an Inkling?" She asked as she looked down at the blue ink still stuck to her shoe.

"We are Inklings Molly," Inka said as she placed her arms around Ploosh and Squil, "Cal's one too."

"Funny, you guys look an awful lot like humans." She was becoming irritated by this point. "And I've known Cal for three months, I think I would be able to tell if she wasn't."

"We're using technology to disguise our true forms to, you know...not scare people."

"If that's the case than why do I look human when I'm not using anything to disguise myself?"

All four of them looked at each other before turning back to her and shrugging, "I'm not sure Molly how you are doing it but I'm pretty sure..."

"So for all you know I really am human."

"I suppose bu-"

"Thank you that's all I needed to know now if you excuse I need to..." she suddenly tried to drop to the floor but caught herself by grabbing the railing on her bed. "But then again it looks like I could use some help."

"Molly are you alright?" Cal rushed over to her to help support her.

"Oh yeah I'm fine, trying hard not to black out but otherwise just fine."

"You know I never was a big fan of your sarcasm Molly. My cousin did enough of it to me as it is."

"Yeah whatever," she mumbled as her head started to slump forward.

Cal quickly shook her awake, "Molly if you pass out now I might not be able to help you."

"Do you think you know what's wrong with her?"

"Yes Cadet Ploosh, I'm pretty sure she ha-" a new scream rent the air but this time it was followed by a squeal of laughter.

A familiar voice then entered into Cal's mind. _Actually most likely there are two of them. They rarely work alone._

"Mom!" pulling away from Cal's arms Molly ran towards the direction of the backyard.

"She doesn't really think about her own well being above others, does she?"

Cal shook her head, "In the last three months that I have known her not really."

"Yeah figures," Inka replied as she followed the others outside.

When they had made it outside they found Molly trying to stand up from the grass that she had made it to before she fell to the ground. Running towards her Cal knelt down in the grass and tried to help her sit up. Based on how pale she looked and how unsteady she seemed Cal knew Molly didn't have much time left.

"Landdwellers are such strange creatures, aren't they Agent 1?"

Cal growled as she bared her teeth at the female Octoling who was grinning at them. Lily Walker was standing stiffly between them and the Octoling as the Octoling held her gun to the side of her head. "You know without the fangs that really doesn't seem that threatening."

"How about an ink splat to the face Octarian jerk?!" Inka raised her gun to shoot it.

"Do that and the Landdweller dies," she pressed the barrel of the gun harder into Lily's head.

"Cadets stand down," reluctantly they did.

"Aww, such obedient little squid children aren't they?"

"Enough! What do you want Octoling?"

"We want you of course. Without you we can't complete our set of Inklings who have on multiple occasions ruined our plans."

"Cal no, don't do it!" Molly said weakly before slumping back down into Cal's arms.

"I've got to admit I'm impressed that one has survived as long as she has."

"You have something to do with her condition?"

"To be perfectly honest with you I was trying to get you by putting Octarian ink into that pool, she was simply collateral damage."

"I figured it was ink poisoning. She has all the symptoms."

"Yes and by the looks of it she doesn't have long either. Tell you what Agent 1 I'll give you a choice to fight or come quietly, but I'll tell you if you do choose to fight at least one of you will not make it out of here alive."

"Don't listen to her Agent 1, we can handle her," Squil insisted as he tightened his grip on his gun.

"Well if that's the case then I would like to fight you looking like my true enemies, Inklings." moving her weapon from Lily's head she shot once but the glob sailed over their heads and didn't hit any of them.

"Ha! You missed!" Ploosh declared with a wide grin on his face.

"Who says I missed?"

Turning in the direction the shot had gone Cal quickly spotted where the ink had landed on the cover for something electrical attached to the house, which quickly short-circuited. A new sound instantly drew her attention to the ground and she gasped as she realized that it was the sprinklers in the grass shuddering violently, "Oh no."

Following her gaze Squil groaned, "you have got to be squi-" simultaneously all the sprinklers went off soaking them to the skin.

For several seconds Molly was confused by their reaction until she heard a faint fizzle followed by their appearence shimmering before changing to reveal their true forms.

Their hair had become slimy and was colored with spotted markings on one side and white with suction cups on the other side, which made Molly quickly realize they're hair was now tentacles. They all had pointed ears and strange black markings around their eyes. When Inka had opened her mouth in surprise Molly then was able to see three sharp fangs, two on the upper jaw and one on the lower jaw, in her mouth amongst the rest of her normal looking teeth.

"So, this is what you normally look like?" Molly asked feeling slightly awkward.

"Yeah," Cal replied as she was trying to pull something out of her eyes. When she had pulled her hand away she had a pair of contacts in it and her eyes were now gold instead of brown. She threw them away from herself, "If I'm going to face my possible end I'll want to do it directly with my own two eyes."

"Ooh, Agent 1 one is getting serious now," the Octoling giggled.

"Enough talk Octarian! Let's just get this over with."

"With pleasure," she smiled showing three sharp fangs similar to the Inklings. Raising her gun to eye level she prepared to fire at them.

Just as she was about to pull the trigger a giant gush of water hit her straight in the face, causing her to yelp in surprise and choke on water, "what is the meaning of this?"

"No one messes with my friends, even if they are half octopus."

"Squid!" All four of them shouted at her.

"Whatever," she said as she rolled her eyes, "you're are not going to lay a single slimy hand on them."

The Octoling snorted at her, "Just what do you think you can do against me, little Landdweller?"

"Just because I'm part of a weaker race than yours doesn't mean I'm defenseless," with that she raised the garden hose she had up to her face and pulled the trigger on the head to full blast.

Shocked to see the water coming towards her the Octoling only raised her arms to protect her face as the water knocked her backwards into the pool behind her. Shrieking in fear, she floundered around on the surface for a few seconds before sinking down out of sight to the bottom. The only indication of her death being a cloud of purplish-pink ink floating up to the surface.

"You know Cal the fact that you guys can't swim is kind of sad," Molly said before her eyes rolled up into her head and she past out.

"Molly no!" Cal knelt down next to where she had fallen and picked up her head, placing it on her lap as she tenderly stroked Molly's bangs from her hot forehead, "she's alive but just barely."

"Callie do you know what's wrong with her?" Lily asked as she came over to them.

She nodded, "Molly has a condition that our people calls ink poisoning. If the Octarian ink isn't neutralized from her body it will kill her."

"Can you save her?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On whether she really is one of us," turning to face the other three she rested her eyes on Ploosh, "Cadet, I need you to change from green to orange."

"What? Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Cal held up a clump of Molly's hair.

"Agent 1 you know as well as I do that we can't change our color at will. I would have to find some form of liquid to mimic in order to change colors and I don't know about you but...augh!" He cried out, startled, when a bowl of orange punch was suddenly poured over his head.

"Will that suffice?" Lily asked still holding the bowl in her hands.

Wiping orange droplets away from his eyes he nodded, "Um, yeah, that should work," even as he spoke the color of his tentacles rippled as they slowly changed from green to bright orange. Emptying his ink tank of the green ink that was in it Ploosh slowly refilled it with new ink and sprayed a puddle of the orange ink on the ground.

Gently Cal placed Molly into the puddle and stepped back so as to ensure she didn't fall into the ink herself. With Molly's hair spread out from her face and her skin deathly pale now she almost looked to Cal like she was already dead. She couldn't even tell if Molly was still breathing.

"Molly please wake up. We need to get that Octarian ink out of your system. Please Molly you can't..." tears started to flow down Cal's face as she slid down onto the grass and fought back sobs that threatened to come over her, "I've lost too many people in my life to lose you too," she continued to sit there on her knees for several minutes.

"I'm sorry Agent 1, it's over." Inka placed a hand on her shoulder.

She sighed heavily, "I know, but I really had hoped that it would work."

"Even if she was an Inkling she didn't even really stand a chance with how long the ink had been in her system." Squil helped Cal get onto her feet, "come on we need to get back to Inkopolis and I'm sure the Captain would like to see you again Agent 1."

She sniffled slightly before she nodded, "yes I suppose you're right." She turned away from the lifeless form of her friend.

"Eeep!" A high pitched voice cried out followed by the sound of something falling into liquid.

Whipping her head around Cal gasped when she saw Molly's body had disappeared. Rushing back over to the puddle she leaned over and scanned it carefully. "Molly?" She choked out in disbelief, "where are you?"

No sooner had the words left her mouth a pair of orange eyes stared back up at her from the puddle, fear plain as day in them. Letting out a soft whine the orange squid revealed the rest of itself and floated gently on the surface of the ink.

"Oh my gosh, Molly you're alive," Cal cried out on the verge of crying again.

Molly squeaked in fear at Cal's reaction. She started to climb out of the puddle to try to comfort her but didn't get far since all she could do outside of the ink was flop around on the grass.

"Oh Agent 1! Molly doesn't know how to change out of her squid form."

"It would appear so,"Cal responded as she tried not to laugh.

Molly squeaked again in annoyance as she struggled harder to move.

"I'm sorry Molly. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, its just that this is a normal problem for our people when we turn 14." Gently picking Molly up from the grass Cal brought her up to her face and stared directly into her eyes, "all you need to do is concentrate and you'll change back, I promise."

Molly did the closest equivalent of a nod that she could muster in her current form. Placing her back on the grass Cal and the others took a few steps back to allow her room to change. For several seconds nothing happened but then slowly her form changed until she had reverted to her human form, kneeling in the grass with head down as she breathed heavily.

"Don't worry Molly it'll get easier over time."

"That's not what's bothering me Inka," finally looking up at them they could see that like them she had the same black markings around her now bright orange eyes, as well as orange tentacles, pointed ears and three sharp fangs in her mouth. She gave them a sad look, "I guess there's no denying that I'm an Inkling now."

"There's nothing wrong with being different Molly."

She looked over at Lily who was now standing on the porch, "Did you know what I was Mom?"

"I didn't know what your race was called but yes I did know you weren't human." She sat down on a wooden bench and indicated for her to come sit by her.

Molly did and leaned up against her as she stroked an area behind her right ear. Inadvertently Molly made a sound that was a cross between a purr and a chirp as she closed her eyes in contentment.

"When I first found you this was how I was able to calm you down. I had been walking home from work when I heard something that sounded a lot like crying. Following the noise down an alley I found a small orange squid behind a dumpster floundering in an orange puddle of liquid clearly too small for it. From my work I knew it wasn't an ordinary squid otherwise it would have dried up and died. As I picked it up it immediately tried to fight me, even succeeded in getting one of my fingers into its beak. While I tried to figure out how to get it to calm down I had accidentally lightly brushed the right side fin on its mantel and it stopped. The next thing I knew it was mewing like a kitten and was trying to fall asleep in my hands. Using a scarf I had on I wrapped it up like a baby and started to head home again. When I had gotten home I was shocked to discover the squid was now a small orange haired baby girl. I was debating if I had imagined the girl being a squid when, waking up from its nap, the girl opened orange eyes that were darkening even as I watched while she yawned showing three small sharp fangs retreating back into her gums. This is the first time I have seen you in this semi-human form."

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked opening her eyes to look up at her.

"I thought I could raise you as a human, but as the years have past I have seen on multiple occasions that there was going to come a point in which I couldn't keep your origins a secret anymore. I guess 14 was the magic number."

"In our people after our 14th birthday we gain the ability to fully turn into our humanoid form. Until then we primarily stay in our squid form with being able to partially change into a humanoid form for a few seconds."

"But I was able to turn into a humanoid form when I was little, how does that work Cal?"

Cal shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know Molly. Probably the only one who could know how is your parents."

"My parents? My Inkling parents you mean?"

"Yes."

Molly took a deep breath as she gritted her teeth, "but how am I going to find them?"

"You can come with us to Inkopolis and we can help you find them."

"Really?"

"Of course, your my friend Molly."

"Thank you Cal," she said as she hugged her, "you're one of the best friends I have ever had." Suddenly she pulled away and looked over at Lily, "but wait...if I leave then what will happen to you Mom?"

"Don't worry about me Molly. I had spent several years by myself before you came into my life and I'm sure I can handle many more. But Molly, please promise me something."

"What?" tears were welling at the corners of her eyes.

"Even when you are far away and I'm long gone don't forget me, ever, okay kiddo?"

"Oh Mom, how could I forget you?" She hugged her tightly for several minutes.

The sound of Cal clearing her throat brought them back to reality, "Molly we need to go now."

"Okay Cal," she wiped the tears away from her eyes as she sniffled slightly. Stepping away from Lily Walker she followed the others off the porch and towards the back gate. Before she passed through it though she took one last glance at the place as well as the woman who had shared her home with her for the last 13 years. Currently that woman was waving at her, tears still streaming down her face.

Not wanting to cry again she did a quick wave back before ducking through the gate and running to catch up with the others.

The journey was made longer since they all now had to avoid being seen. As they went Molly was able to practice changing between her two forms. By the time they had made it out of town she was able to change without much thought.

Climbing up to a tall hill Cal allowed the other three to go on ahead of her and Molly. Once they were gone she stood in Molly's path making her stop, "what is it Cal?"

"Hey I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just found out that you aren't human, your parents abandoned you when you were little and you're about to leave everything you know for somewhere you didn't even know existed until a few hours ago. Shall I continue?"

"I suppose you have a point," looking back the way they had come she could see lights already coming on as the sun started to set, "there has to be a reason for why I'm here and I'm not going to give up until I find the answer Cal."

"I know, that's one of the things about you I like Molly."

She smiled, "Thanks Cal."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Once we get to Inkopolis you shouldn't probably call me that anymore."

"Why not?"

"If my grandfather hears about it I'll never hear the end of it."

"Oh, then what should I call you?"

"Use my full name, call me Callie."

"Very well, Callie."

"Hey! Are you two coming?"

"Yes Cadet Ploosh, we're coming." together the two of them raced up the rest of the hill.

When they reached the top they found the others waiting around a glowing portal, "so, who's first Agent 1?"

"I'll go first." Molly quickly volunteered.

"I don't know Molly..." Callie started to say.

"I can do it Callie. You just step on right?"

"Yes you do, but yo-" she never heard the end of what Callie had been saying because she had already stepped onto the portal and was teleported away from the place she had once called home.


	6. A Few Words With the Captain

_Author's notes: Yay, another chapter complete and a new one to begin._

 _I heard that team dog won the Splatfest over the weekend and that the next one will be coming up in several weeks. I'm not sure what the teams will be yet but I'm sure it will be something pretty good._

 _Over 1500 views and still going strong._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 6: A Few Words With the Captain**

Of all the things to do when she had first made it to Inkopolis landing in a pile of garbage had not have been very high on Molly's list.

When she had stepped off the teleporter pad she had quickly become extremely dizzy and couldn't stop herself from landing face first into a large mound of slimy debris that smelled very strongly of fish. Covering her mouth and nose Molly for the second time that day fought the urge to puke.

Climbing out of the junk while pulling stuff out from her clothes and tentacles she saw that the others had already arrive and seemed to have no effects from the trip through the portal.

"Oh Molly," Callie covered her mouth to prevent herself from laughing, "I'm sorry, I was trying to warn you about the vertigo but you were gone before I had the chance. Also you have..." she pointed towards her ear where a strand of something was dangling off of it.

Quickly Molly pulled it off and threw it back with the rest.

"Man, it feels like forever since we were last here," Ploosh said as he stretched his arms behind his head.

"Ploosh we were here this morning." Inka said as she took one whiff of Molly before slowly backing away.

"Oh yeah."

"This isn't part of Inkopolis, is it?" Molly asked as she sniffed her t-shirt and quickly regreted it. Inka was right, she did smell bad.

Callie shook her head, "No, the city is above us. This is Octo Valley."

"Octo Valley?"

"This is the base of the Squidbeak Splatoon team as well as the residence of..."

"Callie? Is that you?" A voice called out before an elderly Inkling came out of a ramshackle hut and hugged Callie tightly before she could stop him.

"Callie it has been too long since I last saw you and with your cousin still missing I was beginning to wonder if I would ever see you again."

"But Captain..." Callie tried to say as she glance, embarrassed, at the others. Squil, Inka, and Ploosh meanwhile were starting to snicker under their breath.

"Don't you 'but Captain' me young lady. I expect a through report of the last three months from you in the next few days."

"Callie, is this guy related to you?" Molly finally dared to ask as the snickering behind her got louder.

"I, uh...what? Agent 1 you didn't tell me the others hadn't returned to Inkopolis yet," the old Inkling sputtered out as he tried to cover his mistake. However based on the fact that the other three looked on the verge of laughing full out it was probably too late .

"Sorry gramps but they found out who I was hours ago." Placing her hand on Molly's shoulder she steered her over to the old Inkling, "grandfather I would like to introduce you to Molly Walker, the Inkling I mentioned in my message. Molly this is my grandfather, Captain Cuttlefish, original leader of the original Squidbeak Splatoon." she suddenly scrunched up her nose, "Although Captain I've got to say normally Molly smells a lot better than right now."

"It's nothing Agent 1, my sense of smell went long ago. So your the Inkling that was raised by Landdwellers?"

"Landdwellers? What on earth is...?" Glancing behind Captain Cuttlefish she could see Callie suddenly waving her arms in a frantic manner. Taking the hint she quickly changed what she was saying, "I mean yeah, of course I was raised by Landdwellers. Is there a problem with that?" She tried to place her hands on her hips but her tentacles got in the way, making the monuvere awkward. Giggling nervously she took a step backwards.

Right back into the garbage pile.

Unable to hold their laughter any longer the others busted out laughing. Ploosh even temporarily turned into his squid form which only made his laughter higher pitched.

"Don't worry about those three Molly. They are just immature kids who don't know when they've taken it too far," glaring at them they instantly fell silent, shame coloring their faces pink, "Captain do we have any gear Molly can change into so she can smell, ah, less fishy?"

Stroking his white beard Cuttlefish nodded, "I do believe I have somewhere the basic Turf War gear somewhere, one second," walking back into the shack sound of things crashing around could be heard for several minutes before he came back carrying a yellow t-shirt, black shorts with a color band on the sides, pale yellow sneakers, and a gray and white headband. "Here you go bucko, try these on for size."

"Thanks," taking the offered clothes she walked into the shack to change.

While pulling her old shirt off Molly happened to place one of her hands on her back and felt something that wasn't there before. Craning her neck she could just barely see a flap of skin covering a portion of her back between her shoulder blades. Gently lifting the skin she could feel a small indent underneath it, but was unable to really to see anything, She carefully placed her hand on the area of her back.

The sudden feeling of something wet on her hand quickly made her pull her hand away. Lifting it towards her face she was shocked to find it covered in what looked like orange colored ink.

"Molly are you nearly done?" Callie asked just outside the door.

"Yeah I'll be right there!" flicking the ink off her fingers she pulled the new shirt over her head and slipped into the the black shorts which the colored band on it turned to orange as soon as she had put the shorts on. Lacing up the sneakers she took one look at herself in some reflective metal before placing the headband on her head in such a way that it prevented her long tentacles from going into her face and block her view.

Stepping outside Molly found all of them waiting for her. "How do I look?"

"You look like you're ready to walk into your first Turf War Molly." Squil stated as the others nodded in agreement.

"Not to sound incredibly stupid but what is a Turf War?"

"Today it is a game for the young Inkling but many years ago it had a whole different meaning behind the term." Cuttlefish looked up at his granddaughter as she placed her hands on his shoulders and smiled, "when the great floods forced the Landdwellers to leave or drown trying to stay our people took what would look like a disaster to one race as an opportunity for ours. We of course were not the only ones who thought this. Another race known as the Octarians also saw the potential of enlarging their territory and at first our two races did try to find a way to share the land but as time past the Octarians became more and more hostile towards us Inklings. Eventually the Octarians declared war on us and reluctantly we had defended our claim on the land, this was called the Great Turf War and is what the game today is based off of. At the end of the war we won, but just barely, and the surviving Octarians dissappear underground. Every once in a while they try to come back to the surface and reclaim what they believe they justly deserve but most of the time my agents can handle them before they can do anything permanent."

"And you guys are agents?" Molly turned to face Squil.

"Actually only Callie is an agent, we were recruited only a few months ago to help out when needed. Up until today we had never even met Agent 1. There are currently only three agents at this point."

"Well if Callie is Agent 1 than who are Agent 2 and Agent 3?"

The tension in the air was thick as none of them dared to look at her for several minutes.

"Okay, never mind," she quickly said. Whatever had happened to the other two agents would clearly have to wait to be answered. She decided to try to get a different question answered, "Hey Inka when we first met you mentioned something about a Splatoon and Callie said something about it again just several minutes ago. What is a Splatoon?"

"A Splatoon is a four person team or squadron. The teams in the Turf Wars are in Splatoon format like the battles of old in memory of them. The team we are in is named after the legendary Squidbeak Splatoon from the war. The Captain was the leader for that Splatoon and now is the trainer and advisor for the team."

"So its you, Squil, Ploosh, and Callie on your team?"

"No, sorry Molly I may work with the team but my Turf War fighting days are long gone."

"Then whose your fourth player?"

Squil's face turned slightly pink, "Actually funny you should ask but we were wondering if you could join our team."

"Me, fighting in the Turf Wars? But I don't know anything about the game."

"We can teach you."

"But what if I suck?"

"Suck?" Squil asked with a puzzled expression.

"I mean what if I'm not very good?"

"We will help you any way we can to get better. Besides all of us started somewhere on another team before we joined this one, right Inka?"

She nodded, "The Splatoon I started out in was called the Spiny Urchins."

"Roller Roadsters Splatoon for me," Ploosh chimed in.

"And I came from a team called the Tiger Sharks, everybody was once a rookie and knows how it was when they were one. Let us help you Molly."

Looking between the three of them Molly could see that they looked like they were afraid of her saying no. "Mildly curious though what happens to a team if it doesn't have four members?"

"They become temporarily disqualified from Turf Wars until they find replacements and if they can't the team is forced to be disbanded."

"Oh," she now knew why they seemed so desperate. They had probably known each other for awhile and losing the team would probably mean they might not be able to be together anymore.

She couldn't let that happened, "Well if you're sure then...yes I'll join your team."

"Really?" Squil's ears slightly lifted from their previously downward position.

"Sure, if you think you can teach me how to fight in the Turf Wars I don't see why not."

"Woohoo! The Squidbeak Splatoon is back in action people!" Ploosh cheered, grabbing Molly's hands he twirled her in a quick circle. "Molly you have no idea how sunked we would have been without you."

"Oh I'm sure I could guess," she smiled.

"Well in that case if that is settled than Captain Cuttlefish I'll be taking my leave now and will send that report in the next following days."

"Wait, Callie you're leaving?"

"I must. It has been too long since I was in Inkopolis and some people I know must think I walked off into the ocean. There's relationships I need to to repair the damage from my sudden leave of absence. I'll be coming back in a few weeks."

"How do I know you'll really be back?"

"Molly," She groaned but suddenly she brightened, "I have an idea, wait here." Running into the shack she quickly came back out with a large black duffle bag, "it's good to know you didn't rummage through my stuff gramps."

"Why would I do that Callie? I'm a guy and you'll never know what you will find amongst a girl's things."

She rolled her eyes at him before unzipping the bag and pulling out a ink gun similar to the one she had used back at the Highlands as well as a tank and harness, "This is my old Splattershot from when I still did Turf Wars. It's still in pretty good condition as well as this ink tank and harness and I expect it to be in pretty much the same condition when I get back," she handed them to her.

"I can't take these you might need them." She tried to hand them back to her.

Callie pushed the equipment back into her arms, "I have plenty of weapons where that came from, trust me you'll need it more then I do."

Cradling the stuff protectively in her arms Molly nodded, "very well Callie."

"Well I'm off, don't get yourself in trouble while I'm gone Captain."

"Hey! I'm careful Callie and besides last time was a sneak attack, I had no control over that!"

Smiling wistfully at them she waved at them after slinging the duffle bag over her shoulder. Walking over to a sewer grate she went through the bars of it in her squid form and dissappeared.

"Do you really think she'll be back in a few weeks?" Molly asked.

"Of course Molly. When my granddaughter says she'll do something she means it."

"Thanks Captain, but I'm not sure that makes me feel any better about losing my only friend here."


	7. Of Squid and Sea Urchins

_Author's notes: it's official everybody, the next Splatfest is coming up and it's roller coasters versus water slides for North America (haven't heard what Europe's or Japan's is though.)_

 _If I actual had the game I would probably be on team roller coasters. Its not that I don't like water slides, (I'm actually a pretty good swimmer,) its more of I would rather do one thing versus the other, (not to mention the fact I'm not a big fan of heights.)_

 _Now that I have quite a few chapters written already and a lot of characters get introduced in the next few chapters a thought came to mind and now I'm curious. How many of you readers have caught on to the style of how I name my characters? (there is one specific style to the names I have and some names may be harder to notice it in than others. Also there are at least three characters whose name doesn't follow the rule. There is a different style for Octoling's names but we'll get into that later.) If anyone is willing to guess write it in the comments below as well as any other questions you have for the story, the game, for me personally or simply you reviews on the story thus far._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 7: Of Squid and Sea Urchins**

"So Molly want to go see Inkopolis now?"

"Huh?" Turning around she could see Squil, Inka, and Ploosh standing near the sewer grate that led to the city.

"You ready to come with us to the city? While we're there we can show you how to use those," Squil indicated the equipment still in her arms.

"Yeah, sure Squil,"

"Here use this to carry your stuff so you're not lugging it all over the place," he tossed an empty pack that Molly thankfully took and quickly shoved the Splattershot, ink tank and harness into it before slinging onto her back. Once the bag was on she walked over to stand around the grate with the others.

"How about we go first so that you don't get lost, okay?"

Still feeling embarrassed about the incident earlier she nodded in agreement.

Quickly turning into their squid forms they slid between the bars of the grate and out of sight. Molly gave them a few seconds head start before she herself changed her form and went through the pipeworks after them.

Several minutes later she climbed up out of a different grate and changed back into her humanoid form on top of it. Smiling at herself for being able to shift between her forms so easily now she looked up to try to spot the others.

Immediately she wished she hadn't given them quite as much of a chance to accidentally ditch her.

Everywhere she looked she saw Inklings of various colors and various clothing styles. Occasionally she did also see creatures that strongly resemble jellyfish, but they only added to the craziness of the place. As far as she could tell there wasn't a single Inkling younger than 14, nor any older than 17.

"Guys? Where are you?" Looking around she started to walk through the crowd, only to several seconds later run right into the back of a male Inkling.

"Hey watch where you're going rookie," the Inkling with teal hair, teal eyes and glasses declared as he turned around. He had to be at least 16 and also the leader of a group that had a yellow male Inkling, a lime green male Inkling and a pink female Inkling.

"I'm sorry I was just..."

"Not looking where your own two feet were taking you, clearly." The pink one scoffed as she adjusted the headphones resting on her head.

"Hey I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose Alga, besides this may very well be her first day here in Inkopolis." The lime green Inkling said. He couldn't have been much older than she was and was wearing a similar outfit to hers, minus the fact that like all the boys here his tentacles were tied up with a colorful elastic band.

"Well if that's the case then perhaps we should give her a proper welcome, right guys?" The teal Inkling looked behind at the group.

"Yeah!" The yellow Inkling said as he smiled, showing his fangs.

"Um, there's really no need for...eep!" The leader of the group quickly had her pinned to a wall. Behind him the pink and yellow Inklings were chuckling at her misfortune while the one who had tried to defend her had a mixture of guilt and pity on his face.

She hissed, showing her fangs in hopes that it might deter him but he simply laughed at her, "Really rookie? Is that the best you can do? I've dealt with far scarier girls than you." He squeezed her arms harder making her yelp in pain which only made the other two laugh even harder.

"Whark let her go!"

Turning the teal Inkling found himself face to face with Squil as well as the Inka and Ploosh who were right behind him, "Squil old buddy! Its been too long si-"

"I said let her go Whark." His blue eyes were as cold as frozen chunks of dark blue ice.

With a faint growl he did. The sudden release nearly making Molly fall to the ground, "Do you know this girl Squil?"

"As a matter of fact I do, her name is Molly and is our new recruit for the Squidbeak Splatoon."

"What? Where's Marlin?" Whark asked.

"Well I could ask the same about Soral, did she finally give up on you?"

"No, I kicked her out of the team. Ever since she heard that something was up with Marlin she's been totally distracted and unable to play like she normally does. I got fed up with it and told her to get over him or find another team. Last I heard she had joined the Manta Rays Splatoon."

"So who's your replacement?"

"This is Kelp," he declared, indicating the lime green Inkling, "he's not bad with a shooter but primarily he'll be our replacement roller." He then turned to face Molly, "what style are you good at rookie?"

"First off my name is Molly, not rookie, Whark or whatever you name is. Second off I haven't had really a chance to play in Turf Wars so I don't even know what you're are talking about." the attitude coming from him was really starting to irritate her.

"Are you squidding me?" He bursted out laughing, as well as Alga and the yellow Inkling, "have you been living under a rock or something? Squil your team is so going to be inked in the next game you play and all because you picked someone whose a wuss as well as stupid."

The next thing he knew he was on the ground with a black eye already forming on his left eye. Surprisingly enough his glasses didn't break in the process.

"Molly?!" Inka stared at her shocked while Molly stared, wide-eyed at her still clenched fist, "what we're you thinking?"

She didn't answer, she honestly didn't know what to say.

"Ugh..." Whark groaned, rubbing his newly injured eye.

"Whark are you okay?" Alga asked as she helped him up.

"Yeah, but that rookie is so dead. Get her Neel!"

"Molly run!"

Running through the crowd she weaved between various Inklings and jellyfish as she tried to get away from the quick yellow Inkling. Eventually she ran into an alley but stopped dead in her tracks when she discovered that it abruptly ended with a wall. Turning around she saw that Neel was already blocking the path out of it.

"Now you're going to get it." he snarled.

"Oh come on, I didn't clock him that hard. Can't you just let me go?"

"Sorry rookie no one messes with...aaahh!" Yellow eyes wide with fear he ran screaming out of the alley.

"What on earth? What spooked him so bad?"

"I believe it was me love."

She turned slowly and had to cover her mouth in order to prevent herself from screaming herself at the sight of the man. His hair was in reality spikes that changed from black to purple at the tips and covered one of his eyes. The one eye she could see was bright green in color with purple markings around it. "Suppose you won't tell me why he was chasing you?"

"I punched his leader in the eye."

He chuckled as if the mental image was hilarious, "I'm sure he earned it love."

Her face turned slightly pink in embarrassment, "Um, yeah sure. I guess I kind of owe you now?"

"You owe ol Spyke nothing love."

"Please Spyke just call me Molly."

"Interesting name, but sure, Molly."

"Molly!"

She turned and found Squil, Inka and Ploosh coming towards her, "I see you got away from Neel in one piece."

"I probably wouldn't have if it weren't for Spyke here." She pointed towards him.

"Sappening mates?"

"Hey Spyke, got my order yet?"

"Fraide not Ploosh, it's going to take longer then I thought."

"Aww."

"Wait, you know this guy?"

"Most know he lives here, but their are some people who prefer to keep their distance from him. Neel just happens to be one of them."

"He tried to short change me on super sea snails one time, I never forget a face, specially one like his," A dark look came over Spyke's face.

"Um, okay." Molly made a mental note never to anger him. She quickly changed the subject, "Hey Squil that guy seemed to know you pretty well, why is that?"

"Whark is the leader of the Tiger Sharks Splatoon, which was the Splatoon I used to be in before this one. When I was in there it was him, Neel, Soral, and me."

"Ah, I can see why you'd left."

"Whark didn't used to be like that, he was a pretty nice guy but when Marlin offered me a place on the Squidbeak Splatoon he never got over it and called me a traitor for thinking about leaving the team. I got fed up with it and so I left. It does disappoint me that he now has so low as to start to picking on the new players."

"Well I did run into him because I wasn't looking."

"It doesn't matter, its still not right," nodding a goodbye towards Spyke he headed out of the alley, "come on Molly we said we would show you how to use the equipment."

"Oh, right," She followed the others, something telling her she hadn't seen the last of Whark or any of the other members of the Tiger Sharks Splatoon.

After walking out of the main area of Inkopolis they went to an area outside of the city, "what is this place?"

"This is the training center for Inklings who have just arrive in the city. Here you don't run the risk of hurting anyone or making a fool of yourself," pointing at the bag on her back Inka indicated for her to pull the stuff out.

Placing the bag on the ground Molly unzipped it and pulled out the harness first. It was then that she noticed that it had a needle on one side that connected to a small rubber tube that went on through to the other side of it that would face the tank, "what...?"

"The needle goes into the opening for your ink sac which is on your back in your humanoid form."

"You mean..." Molly pointed to the spot between her shoulder blades.

Inka nodded, "the rubber tube then connects directly to the top of your ink tank so you fill it yourself with your own ink."

Once she had connected the harness to the ink tank she carefully lifted the flap of skin with one hand while she placed the harness on her shoulders and briefly was able to feel the needle sliding into the opening in her back. Once the harness was on the muscles in her back started to tense up, forcing her to scrunch her shoulders forward.

"Roll your shoulders a few times Molly, it helps the muscles in your back to relax so that it's not as uncomfortable."

She did and after the third time she could feel the tension leave her back and aside from the tank bumping into her back occasionally she almost couldn't tell she had the harness even on.

"Okay I have it on, now what?"

"You need to fill you tank with your ink."

"And how do I do that?"

"You already are."

Craning her neck she was able to see orange ink slowly trickling into the tank. "Whoa, that's kind of cool."

"When in humanoid form you'll excrete ink into the tank but it's a fairly slow process. If you turn into your squid form while in a puddle of you own ink you can fill it a lot faster."

"Well in that case..." she changed into her squid form and a small puddle of orange ink formed around her, allowing her to sink down into it. Several seconds later she changed back and could instantly hear the sloshing of her full ink tank.

"Using another set of tubing connect your Splattershot to the release valve on the bottom of the tank. Also don't forget to attache your safety strap around your wrist for your Splattershot, you have no idea how many times I've seen players accidentally throw or drop their weapon and damage it in the process."

Doing as Inka had said Molly finally held her Splattershot nervously in her hands and the tank on her back had already filled the small tank on the actually gun with her orange ink, "so now what do I do?"

Pointing at some balloons in the air Squil answered her, "First let's practice on your aim. Try to hit those balloons."

Nodding she brought the gun up to her line of fire and pulled the trigger. Instantly she felt it kick back as a short stream of orange ink shot out of it and into the air, totally missing the balloon entirely.

"At least it's not the Splattershot Jr that thing has some serious kick for being a gun for beginners."

shaking off the jitters she had she lifted up the gun, this time anticipating the backlash from it. She fired again and hit the balloon causing it to explode in her color.

"Awesome Molly, now see if you can hit them all without missing one."

After several minutes she succeeded in hitting them all and only missed twice in the process. Practicing some more she learned how to hit targets while moving as well as the other way around and how to use the her ink to sneak around without being seen. After an hour of this she found that she also seemed to have several small water balloon like objects that she could quickly fill up with her ink, "hey guys what are these for?"

"What are what for?" Inka asked before she spotted the object in her hand, "oh that is a burst bomb, if you throw it the bomb will explode on impact with whatever it hits...whoa, not right now!" She quickly grabbed Molly's arm as she made to throw it, "at this close of range you'll cover me too and I'm not orange right now. I'll get stuck since its not my color of ink."

"Oh, sorry Inka," she emptied the contents of the bomb carefully on the ground so she could use the bomb later.

"At least you didn't have to teach her that the hard way." Ploosh hollered from his hiding place behind a wall.

"Oh! So you want to be the one out here," she yelled back at him sarcastically.

"Uh, no I'm good!" He ducked back into hiding.

She shook her head at him before turning back to Molly, "one last thing you need to know is that when you have covered enough turf with your colored ink it will activate your special for your weapon. You'll be able to tell that your special is ready by your ink tank making a loud dinging sound. Each special is different for each main weapon but if I remember correctly the one for the Splattershot allows you to throw an unlimited number of bombs for a certain amount of time."

"That's pretty cool."

"It sure is," Ploosh declared as he walked over to Molly and Inka with Squil, "just wait until I can show you the kraken special."

"What's the kraken special?" She asked as she swallowed nervously. Whatever is was it didn't sound like a good thing to be on the receiving end of.

"Oh Molly," he wrapped his arm around her shoulders while they all headed out of the training center, "don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll do just fine for your first time."

His comment didn't do any good to calm her fears.


	8. Onto Turf Wars

_Author's notes: The question from the previous chapter is still up for you guys to try to guess about the trick I use for the Inkling's names in my story. If its not answered I'll probably reveal it as fun trivia for the story in either chapter 9 or chapter 10, I'm not sure yet for certain which one._

 _On a side note after reading some other Splatoon fan fiction, (as well as in some other types of fan fiction,) I've noticed that some did author notes at the beginning and others did it at the end where they could explain references they used. Which do you guys prefer? Please let me know as well as any comments or questions you have for me._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 8: Onto Turf Wars**

Giving Molly a brief tour of the general area of Inkopolis the others quickly explained the different areas, such as the Booyah Base shopping mall and the dojo for one on one ink competitions. At the end of the explanations in front of a building that was called Inkopolis Tower Inka and Molly had to wait for Squil and Ploosh to come back since they had gone to go get their Turf War equipment.

"Are those two roommates or something?"

Inka snorted, "Sure if that's what you want to call it. Ploosh is actually living with Squil's family since his lives in Calimari County, a good several hours drive away."

"What about you?"

"Me? I'm living with my older sister and my nephew Urchio, she's a waiter for one of the cafés here. It has some pretty good crab cakes at it if you are hungry later."

"Um, sure I'll try to remember that." She said as she started to feel nauseous at the thought of eating any kind of seafood.

"Hey Inka, ditched the boys have you?"

Molly jumped several feet into the air at the sudden voice behind her and nearly turned into a squid in the process. Turning around she found a partially stunned medium blue female Inkling with similarly colored eyes that wore headphones like Alga had, a burgundy shirt and pink and blue sneakers. "Wow, you're pretty tense."

"I'm sorry," Molly squeaked, her face turning red for the umpteenth time that day. "I only just arrived here today."

"I figured that was the case," a smile formed on the girls face, "I didn't mean to startle you. My name is Soral and I'm on the Manta Rays Splatoon."

"Oh, you're Soral! I've heard a lot about you."

"Hopefully all good things I'm sure," she leaned her shoulder up against one of the pillars, careful not to let the large roller strapped to her back hit anything. "What's your name and Splatoon?"

"I'm Molly and I'm in the Squidbeak Splatoon."

Soral's posture slightly stiffened at the statement, "So you're Marlin's replacement huh?" She turned her gaze towards Inka.

"Yes Soral she is." Inka gave her a look like she wished Soral hadn't brought up the subject.

Seeing her unease Soral quickly backtracked out of the current conversation, "Well anyway I have to go girls. Zackerel and the others are probably waiting for me in the lobby. It was nice meeting you Molly." Showing her fangs in a friendly manner she walked up the last few steps to the entrance of Inkopolis Tower and walked into the lobby.

"Hey Inka was that Soral?" Ploosh asked, as he ran up to them. In his hand he had a black and green duffle bag and a roller strapped to his back like Soral had only it looked to be lighter in weight than hers had been and his was bright green with blue swirling marks on the ends instead of hers which had primarily been mostly metallic.

"It was, the Manta Rays are about to go and do Turf Wars."

"Hey why don't we do a Turf War with them?"

"Ploosh not that I'm not eager to play again but Molly hasn't ever been in a Turf War before and last I check the Manta Rays are one of the higher ranked Splatoons."

"Molly could handle it, can't you Molly?"

"I-I, u-uh, um..."

"Come on Molly...please?" he started to give her a sad look, ears drooping downwards and a slight pout forming on his lips. If he had turned into his squid form Molly was almost certain that he would started to whine like a sad little puppy.

"Alright fine!" She said but while the other weren't looking she quickly gave him a "I'll blame you for this if this goes bad" look. She saw him slightly shiver in fear in reaction to her expression.

As they walked into the lobby the saw Soral and three other Inkling standing in front of a black and white cat whose markings strongly resembled a bow tie and coveralls. Upon farther observations Molly also quickly realized that the end of its long tail was in the shape of an arrow.

"I thought all mammalian creatures didn't survive the flood here?"

"Judd's the exception." Inka stated, "When the flood became imminent the Landdwellers placed him in a protective cryogenic sleep. Our people found him while going through the remains of the Landdweller's civilization. During the Great Turf War he helped out our side and now is the gamekeeper and judge for the games."

"Oh," the explanation didn't stop her from continuing to stare at him.

"Hey guys," noticing their presence in the lobby Soral and the rest of her team walked over to them, "I didn't know you were going to do Turf Wars."

"We decided that we would like to go up against your team since you guys are already here," Ploosh declared.

"With a Rookie?" A male Inkling with reddish orange colored tentacles and eyes asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If they think they can handle it I don't see why not Zack," Soral insisted.

"Well alright, I just hate it when I feel like I'm taking advantage of a team due to them lacking experience." he held out a hand to Molly, "my name is Zackerel, but most people call me Zack, and I'm the leader of the Manta Rays Splatoon. You clearly have already met Soral and this is Crad and Cass, they're twins." He quickly indicated the cyan male and female Inklings behind him.

"Molly, just arrived here today." She took the offered hand and shook it.

"Well Molly may the best Inkling win."

"Hey Zack! Walleye Warehouse just finished it's last competition, let's head out!" Cass called out to him as she heaved up something that looked very much like a giant paintbrush and headed down one of four hallways.

"Alright Cass I'm coming. See you guys on the field." He followed the rest of his team.

"We should get ready too. Come on guys," Squil already had on his harness and ink tank as he pulled out a gun similar to Molly's from his bag. Ploosh unstrapped the roller from his back and Inka quickly snapped together a long-range weapon. Pulling her own Splattershot out Molly followed them down the same hallway the other team had gone.

Near the end of the hall it split into two separate alcoves with brightly glowing pools of ink that had a grate over it. The one that the Manta Rays were standing above was lime green while the unoccupied one glowed royal blue.

"Blue it is," Squil stepped on to the grate. Turning into his squid form he slid down between the metal bars of the grate and into the blue pool of ink. The other two quickly followed suit.

Leaning over it Molly tried to spot them in the ink but couldn't. Glancing over into the other alcove the other team was already gone as well. Swallowing nervously she stepped onto the grate and turned into her squid form, causing her to go through the grate and plunge into the ink pool below.

Once she was no longer disoriented from the drop she swam down a tunnel and up through another grate to find the others waiting for her. All of them now, however, had blue colored tentacles instead of their normal colors, minus Squil since it was the color he naturally had.

"What...?"

"Our tentacles and ink changes color when we are in Turf Wars, once the game is over our tentacles will change back to our normal colors and we will produce our normal colored ink again. Yours has changed color too if you hadn't noticed," Squil pointed to her tentacles.

Grabbing hold of one of her tentacles she brought it up to her face saw that it was indeed the same color blue as Squil's normal color and looking behind her she also saw the ink in the tank on her back was blue as well.

"Hello fellow Turf War Players," a voice rang out from speakers around the area, "my name is Judd, your wond-fur-ful judge and gamekeeper and since we have new players in this game I want to make sure the rules are purr-factly clear. The object of the game is to cover the turf with your color of ink. Walls don't count and splatting opponents won't improve your overall score but will certainly help spread your color across the turf, also physical fighting will not be tolerated and any who do so will be automatically disqualified. You'll have three minutes, good luck and may the best Inklings win."

"Let's do this!" Flicking the roller he had open Ploosh slammed it onto the ground. Rolling her eyes at him Inka raised her weapon to eye level as it charged up to fire and Squil cocked his own gun in preparation. Molly swallowed again as she shakily raised her Splattershot.

Squil looked over at her and gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder, "Just stick with me Molly and you'll be just fine."

"Thanks Squil."

"The game will begin in 3...2...1. Go!" The cat's voice rang out.

Instantly Squil, Ploosh, and Inka ran off the grate and rushed off in three different directions, immediately started to paint the ground with the blue ink. Hesitating for a second she followed Squil as he went down a path of corridors. Covering the spots he missed in his haste the two of them quickly had a large chunk of the hallways on their side of the area covered in blue.

As they neared where the center was Squil was several feet ahead of Molly when as he turned a corner he let out a short yelp of surprise before exploding in a burst of lime green ink.

"Squil!" She cried out as she ran to the area where he had been. Turning at the same corner she quickly skidded to a stop when she nearly ran right into Cass who was in mid-swing with her brush. Quickly showered in lime green colored ink Molly barely had a chance to wipe some of it out of her eyes before Cass whacked her twice more with the brush and she blacked out.

Shaking her head she found herself back at the starting point with Squil standing next to her, "you alright Molly?"

"Yeah, what happened to us just now?"

"We got splatted, when you get splatted you're sent back to your respawn point. But luckily for us we can just super jump back onto the playing field."

"Super jump? what's that?"

"This," turning into a squid Molly watched Squil puffed up slightly before launching himself into the air with a trailing stream of blue ink.

"Oh! That's pretty cool!" changing into her squid form she allowed her body to fill up with ink and quickly forced it out sending her skywards. Shifting into her humanoid form in mid flight she gasped slightly at the view she had over the whole area. Large sections of it was covered in their blue color but other parts, including in the center, were completely covered in lime green. Looking some more she quickly spotted Inka being chased down by Crad who had a Splattershot like Squil had.

Nearing the ground Molly brought her legs forward and landed on the concrete with a slight jarring sensation in her legs. Immediately lifting her gun up once she was certain of her footing she shot Crad just before he could take out Inka who had become trapped in their ink while trying to get away from him. Like Squil had he exploded into a puddle of ink leaving Inka the chance to spray the area around her feet to free herself.

"You okay Inka?"

"Yes I'm fine. If it were not for the fact that I had to jump down from the second floor to avoid one his suction bombs he wouldn't have been able to almost get me like that. Thanks for the backup."

"Your welcome, both me and Squil got Splatted at the same time by Cass so I understand why you wouldn't want to be splatted in these games."

"Those Inkbrushes can seriously take you out fast if the owner knows what they're doing. From what I have seen in this case what's happening is Cass is taking us all out so that we have little time on the field, allowing the rest of their team to focus on covering turf in their own ink. If we don't do something soon this match is as good as lost to us."

As she listened to what Inka was saying an idea suddenly came to Molly, "If someone could take her out do you think it would give us a chance?"

"Um, sure I guess it could help bu...hey! Molly stop! Where are you going?!" Ignoring her Molly rushed off where she could hear battling taking place, covering any lime green she saw as she ran and silently hopped her plan would work.

Running around some crates she once again nearly ran right into Cass. Jumping backwards she barely missed the sweep of ink from her Inkbrush as Cass tried to attack her. Turning into her squid form she slipped into some blue ink as Cass started to chase her down. Climbing up onto several tall crates she shifted back as Cass chuckled up at her while raising her brush up to spray her, "You sure know how to get yourself in trouble rookie."

"Yeah, but I also know how to take people off guard," raising a burst bomb above her head she smiled mischievously at her as a loud ding sounded from her ink tank, "hey Cass, think fast!" She immediately started to throw one burst bomb after another.

Instinctively Cass tried to catch the bomb with her hands but it busted open upon contact with her hands and covered her with blue ink. Three bombs later she exploded with a shriek of terror.

"One minute remaining," Judd called out from the speakers.

Throwing the last few bombs she had Molly hopped off the crates and went back to spraying the ground to cover the last of the ink Cass had put down. Passing through one of the corridors she quickly had to hide in her ink as Zack and Crad ran past. They covered very little of the blue ink so she was able to wait until they had just barely gone past before she popped out of the ink and hit Zack squarely in the back, causing him to have to go back to his respawn point. Crad looked backwards to see the cause of his leader's defeat but didn't pause as he continued to run.

Several seconds later a large blue squid swam around the corner and towards her before it shrank down to a normal sized squid before it changed back into Ploosh, "Hey did you get either of those two?"

"I got Zack but Crad got away."

"Well that's better than nothing I suppose." He seemed a little disappointed at her answer.

"How did you make yourself big like that?"

"Its my special for my Krak-on Splat Roller," he lovingly patted the handle shaft of the roller, "it's called the Kraken. When I transform into a Kraken I can take out players just by ramming into them but I can get partially stunned if they try to shoot directly at me and I can only be a Kraken for a short period of time."

"Well I guess that explains why those two were running. I was probably the least of their problems."

"That's certainly not going to be what you will be thinking when I'm through with you rookie!"

Looking behind Molly groaned slightly when she saw a very angry Cass coming towards her very quickly, "why does it seem like everyone is out to get me?"

"Well you probably wouldn't have this problem if you didn't have such a nasty habit of pissing people off!" Rushing towards Cass he tried to roll over her with his roller but the Inkbrush allowed her to avoid his roller and whack him from behind sending him back to the respawn point. Barely slowing down Cass continued to come after her.

Turning into a squid she swam through blue ink as fast as she could as once again she had to avoid Cass and her Inkbrush. This time however Cass made sure that she couldn't try to climb up any crates and out of reach. Eventually she forced her into a corner that was completely surrounded in their ink.

"Any last words rookie?"

"'Why me?' comes to mind but I don't think you'll really care."

"Yep, you're right. I don't care." She raised her Inkbrush to attack.

Only to suddenly explode in a burst of blue ink.

"We can't even leave you alone for even a minute, can we Molly?" Inka asked as she helped cover the lime green ink surrounding her with short bursts of ink from the charger weapon she had.

"I figured someone would show up," she shook lime green ink off from her head, "how did you find me so fast?"

"I got splatted when Zack sneak attacked me from behind on one of the second floor overhangs. When I had respawned Ploosh told me Cass was hunting you down for an earlier stunt you had pulled on her and I super jumped to get over here to rescue you."

"Thanks again Inka, I didn't think she would take it that badly."

"Some players can be pretty sore losers when they lose. Speaking of losing..." a loud whistle sounded followed by Judd stating that time was up and that we were to return to our respawn point to exit the area. "Come on let's go see how badly we lost."

By the time they had returned to the lobby Squil, Ploosh, and the Manta Rays had already arrived and seemed to be staring at several screens that show a birds eye view of Walleye Warehouse, "it's pretty even isn't it?" Zack was saying as Molly and Inka walked over to the group.

"Judd will be able to determine the winner," Soral answered his comment, her tentacles already half changed back to its normal medium blue color.

"Either way its going to be close. Hey Molly, nice going with that sneak attack on me. You caught me completely off guard."

"Thanks Zack," she replied as her face turned pink.

"Alright everyone the totals are in!" Standing in front of the screen with the two teams on either side of him Judd waved his tail in anticipation, "the winner of this game is...the Squidbeak Splatoon, 48.6 to 45.7!" He waved a blue flag as well as pointing his arrow shaped tail at them for emphasis.

"Booyah! We won!" Ploosh pumped his fist in the air as he grabbed hold of Molly and pulled her into a tight hug, "and it's all thanks to you Molly."

"I very much doubt that Ploosh," she insisted as she tried to free herself from his grasp.

"Hey rookie," finally getting away from him she watched as Cass came over to her, "not many Inklings have been able to splat me in a long time. Keep up the good work and I'm sure you'll become an amazing Turf War fighter."

"Thanks, and actually my name is Molly by the way."

"Whatever...Molly." she gave her a small smile before walking back to her brother.

"Congratulations and here is your award," holding a small bag Judd handed it to Squil who opened to reveal small gold coins in it, "500 coins for each of you. Don't use it all in one place."

"Don't worry Judd we won't," Squil responded, "when we get the chance we'll separate the earnings so we can each use what we earned as we each seem fit."

"Sounds good to me," Inka said as she flicked lime green ink off her hoodie, "but first I would like to get a little cleaned up if you guys don't mind."


	9. Mind Over Stomach Matters

_Author's notes: Team Roller Coaster won the North American Splatfest over the weekend and thus ending the second Splatfest since the release of Splatoon._

 _Over the weekend I had several people pose guesses for the answer for the question two chapters ago. Here is some of them..._

 _ **Boy Jav**_ _: Did you get their names from supernatural?_

 _ **Author**_ _: Nope, I've actually never seen that show._

 _ **Darkstar248**_ _: Soral-Coral, Cass-Bass, Zackerel-Mackerel, Crad-Crab. Am I forgetting anyone?_

 _ **Author**_ _: Great job, you figured out the trick to me naming my Inklings. Using a word that could be associated with the ocean or the game itself I simply changed one letter in each word to make it into the name of the Inkling. Just so you know here are the ones you didn't list that have showed up in the story thus far..._

 _Squil-Squid_

 _Ploosh-Sploosh_

 _Inka-Ink_

 _Whark-Shark_

 _Alga-Algae_

 _Neel-Eel_

 _Urchio-Urchin_

 _The three whose name doesn't follow the rules is Marlin, Molly, and Kelp (by the way thanks Spotty-chan for reminding me of something about Molly's namesake creature the molly, which is sad since I actually had these as pets when I was a kid). There will be more Inklings introduced later in this story where their names will follow this style as well._

 _Also the nickname of "Zack" for Zackerel is a reference to ZackScott Games, a "let's play" youtuber who if it weren't for his videos on the game Splatoon this story may never have happened, thanks Zack!_

 _Don't forget to leave your questions and comments below. Most likely any question you have I'll answer up here in the author's notes._

 _Thanks everyone for the continued support and enjoy!_

 **Chapter 9: Mind Over Stomach Matters**

Giggling like a bunch of silly kids Squil, Inka, Ploosh, and Molly walked out of the lobby of Inkopolis Tower with wide grins on their faces. They had just spent over an hour doing Turf War battles and had won almost every single one. By the end of it they each had about 3600 coins, the sound of the metal coins in their bag hitting up against her ink tank in her pack occasionally came to Molly's ear and made her smile even more.

"Just think of all the gear I could get with how well we're doing."

"Don't get your hopes up too high Ploosh, we got lucky that most of those teams didn't have high level players. A Splatoon with all four being high leveled players could end us." Squil's expression told Molly he must have been thinking about one Splatoon in particular. One in which, as far as she knew, the leader absolutely hated her guts.

"So what determines your level?" Molly asked as she turned to face Inka.

"Your level is determined by your skill and how long you have been competing in the Turf Wars. The higher your level is the more willing the shopkeepers will be to offer better gear as well as better weapons. Currently the highest level an Inkling can get is 20 but there are rumors that it will change at some point."

"There's always been rumors about the level cap going up but none have proven true yet Inka."

"Yet, Squil."

"Whatever," he growled as his mood seemed to become fouler by the minute, "come on let's go hunt down some food. I can't think straight on an empty stomach."

Even as Squil said it hunger gnawed on Molly like a pack of piranhas eating away at her stomach. Hunched over slightly she tried to remember the last time she had eaten anything, which as far as she could recall was the can of tuna from the morning of her 14th birthday. probably almost 24 hour ago by this point.

"I mentioned the café where my sister works at to Molly earlier so why don't we go there."

"Sounds good to me," it was then that Ploosh seemed to notice Molly's plight, "Molly are you okay? You look pretty terrible right now."

"I'm fine," she lied as she straightened back up from her previous position, "I was just, uh...tying my shoe."

"Well than come on Molly, let's go get some grub! Trust me when I tell you that you don't want to see Squil when he's gone too long without food. He can get pretty scary pretty fast."

Walking away from Inkopolis Tower the foursome headed over to a small coffee shop style café labeled "Stella's Fish and Chips" with a smiling starfish holding a plate of fried fish and french fries on the sign. Glancing up briefly Squil smiled as he pushed the swinging door open.

Instantly the wafting smell of fish came to Molly and she had to fight the urge to gag. Holding her breath she followed the others into the place where they immediately were met by a friendly adult Inkling waitress with purple tentacles the same color as Inka's, "Hey squirt, haven't seen you in here in awhile."

"Hey Leef, sorry I've been busy lately. Our team just recruited a new team member so we've been teaching her some things about Turf Wars."

"Oh, is that you my dear?" Leef asked Molly as she look down on her.

Molly nodded, not daring to breathe still.

"Well any friend of my sister is welcomed here. Take a seat and someone will be with you shortly." She pointed to a table near the door before rushing off to collect empty dishes from off some of the other tables.

Sliding into the benches around the table they each grabbed a menu and started to scan it for what to eat. Molly, unfortunately, found it difficult to picking something due to the constant nausea she was feeling at the same time as her stomach was growling.

"Are you ready for me to take your order?" A different waitress asked as she held a pad of paper and pencil in front of their table.

"I'll have the Bass Burger with fries and a Squido Cola please," Squil answered first as he ran his tongue over his fangs in anticipation of the food.

"Same, but with an Orange Ink Soda instead of the Squido Cola," Ploosh chimed in after Squil.

"Cream and Plankton Soup with a glass of water please," Inka replied simply, earning a puzzled look from Molly, "what?"

"I thought you guys avoided water." She whispered to her as the waitress scribbled away on her paper.

"We can't swim but that doesn't mean we don't consume water," Inka whispered back just as the waitress finished writing the three orders she already had, "what are you planning on having Molly?"

"Um..." she bit her lip with one of her fangs causing it to bleed slightly. Glancing at the menu once more she tried to find anything she knew she would eat but everything she looked at seemed to contain either fish, crustaceans or sometimes even both. The pounding in her head that had started several minutes ago was starting to get worse and her stomach seemed to be having a mental war with her mind."

"If you don't know what to have the Cream and Plankton Soup is actually pretty good Molly."

It was then that Molly suddenly remembered something from middle school biology. Plankton were tiny plant creatures that lived in the ocean in high abundance. If they were plants than...

"I'll have what's she having," she said startling Inka.

"Very well I'll be back with your order shortly," the waitress walked away from their table, leaving the three bewildered Inklings with Molly who looked very pleased with herself.

"Hey Molly, what's with the grin?" Ploosh was the first to dare to ask her after several minutes.

"Hmm? Oh don't worry guys I'll explain after we have eaten," her smile grew wider when a bowl of pale colored soup was placed in front of her. Grabbing a spoon she scooped up a spoonful and placed it into her mouth. Her stomach gurgled for joy at the arrival of food and she started to eat mouthful after mouthful of it.

"I told you it was good," Inka stated as she started to eat herself.

"It sure is and it's vegetarian!"

"What? No its not."

"Yeah it is, plankton are tiny plant creatures."

"Phytoplankton are but that's not phytoplankton in there, it's zooplankton."

"Zooplankton?" A spoonful hovered halfway to her mouth.

"Yeah, phytoplankton are tiny plant creatures like you said but Zooplankton are tiny ani-"

Soup sprayed across the table as Molly spat out the soup that was already in her mouth. Coughing she grabbed several napkins from the dispenser and wiped the dribbles that were running down her chin. "I'm so sorry Squil," she quickly apologized since a large amount of the soup had ended up all over his shirt and face.

"Its okay Molly, it was only an accident," he insisted as he pulled his goggles from off the top of his head only to find soup splatters on them as well. "Hey Ploosh can you come with me to help?"

"What for?" He asked turning to face him. Fear entered into his eyes as he saw the stern look Squil was giving him. Across the table Molly had placed her head in her arms on the table and was moaning softly. "Um, yeah sure of course I'll help you." he quickly got up from the table and followed Squil to the restroom.

"I'll go see if my sister can help us clean this mess," patting Molly on the back Inka got up as well.

As soon as the three were out of sight Molly looked up and groaned, causing several of the customers in the café to glance at her with a mixture of worry and annoyance. What little of the soup she did eat was not even close to sustain her until she could find something else later and the pounding headache had returned, making her feel even more miserable. Thoughts of whether she would starve here had already come to mind as her vision became somewhat blurry from her tears.

Sniffling loudly she suddenly caught the smell of something different from the fish smell pervading the air. Sniffing again she followed the smell until she had walked across the café to an table that only recently had been vacated. Sitting in one of the spots was a bowl filled with some form of aquatic salad. The leaves were slimy but still looked fairly fresh which probably meant that the customer just didn't feel like finishing the meal.

Taking one look around to see if anyone was watching Molly quickly sat down and picked up an unused fork immediately started to scarf the food. In less then two minutes the bowl was empty and she leaned back in the seat with a satisfied sigh, closing her eyes in the process.

"Molly, what have you done?"

Opening her eyes she found Inka standing next to her with a look of horror on her face while holding some towels in her hands. Leef behind her had a similar expression.

"I couldn't stand eating that food Inka. Lily raised me not to eat meat."

"I very much doubt she meant for you to make yourself sick."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you have any idea what was in that salad?"

"Um, no."

"That was the Seaweed and Watercress Salad Special for today. It's only served to herbivore customers due to the fact that both of those are poisonous to carnivores, especially to Inklings." Leef supplied the information to her.

"So what your telling me is that I just ate a bowl of..." even as she said Molly's stomach no longer felt satisfied but instead had started to gurgle and the nausea from before had returned in full force. She swallowed to fight it back but it did little good as she clutched her stomach in pain.

"Oh Molly, you're turning green!"

Molly believed Inka but didn't dare open her mouth to answer her.

"You need to get her out of here before she..." Leef didn't complete her sentence but it had become pretty obvious to Molly what the end of it was.

"Come on Molly," grabbing one of her arms Inka quickly dragged her towards the door as Squil and Ploosh had returned from the restroom.

"Hey you two...what in all things squid did you do Molly?!"

"She gave herself stomach poisoning by eating seaweed and watercress Squil. We have to get her somewhere where she can get rid of the toxins in her stomach."

"Uh, right. Come on Molly let's get you out of here," he then grabbed her other arms and together lead her out the doors and outside.

"Hey rookie! You think you could get away from us that easily?"

Weakly raising her head Molly moaned at the sight of Whark and the rest of the Tiger Sharks Splatoon following right behind him. The look on his face and the still prominent black mark on the area around his eye clearly told her that was clearly not over her hitting him.

"Whark, Molly's not..."

"Move it Sploosh!" Whark barked as he pushed Ploosh aside.

"My name is Ploosh, not Sploosh," Ploosh cried out at him.

He ignored him as he stormed up to the other three. Grabbing Molly's shoulders he pulled her away from Inka and Squil who could only stand and watch as Alga and Neel prevented them from coming to Molly's aid.

"If you thought that you were going to get away with that stunt you pulled earlier than you were greatly mistaken rookie!" he shook her roughly to emphasize his point, "do you have anything to say before I wallop you into next week...Molly?"

The shaking he had given her had been too much for her stomach to handle in its current state. So when she finally did opened her mouth she couldn't stop a large green foaming heap from falling out of it and landing on his shoes.

"Aaugh!" Alga cried out as she turned slightly green herself. Kelp, who had stayed out of the situation, was giggling under his breath at her reaction, which quickly earned him a glare from her.

Pushing past the her and Neel Inka and Squil rushed over to Molly and started to dragged her away from Whark, who was turning red in rage, "This isn't over rookie! You'll pay for this!"

"Whatever you say old boss," Squil muttered under his breath as he helped Inka lead Molly over to some bushes.

After ten minutes of more puking followed by dry heaves Molly took a kindly offered glass of water to rinse her mouth out from Inka's sister who had come out to check up on them, "thanks Leef."

"No need to thank me Molly. It's not the first time I've seen someone unable to keep their food down."

"Yeah, but I doubt you've ever seen anyone try to poison themselves like that."

"Well if you really was raised like an herbivore by Lily than how were you to know? Your predatory consumption needs must have been somehow suppressed until you became 14. Otherwise there's no way you could have survived long enough to reach your 14th birthday."

"But how is that possible?"

The three of them shrugged simultaneously.

"Great, add that to the steadily lengthening list of weird things about me we have no explanations for."

Leef stared at her little sister in puzzlement, "there's a list?"

"Trust me sis you don't want to know."

"Well alright Inka I trust you," Leef replied, the worried look still present on her face. She rubbed a gentle hand on Molly's back, "I think it's best that we get Molly home. Do you know where she lives?"

Squil and Ploosh looked down at the ground, not daring to look at her as Inka spoke, "Well that's actually the thing Leef, Molly comes from uh...really far away and she doesn't have any relatives here in Inkopolis."

"Oh dear, Inka why didn't you say anything before. She can live with us."

"Wait, what? No Leef we..."

"Inka if she really doesn't have any family here than she needs somewhere to stay. It is the least you could do as her friend."

"But what about Urchio?"

"He handled you living with us I'm sure he can handle one more girl in the house."

"Bu-"

"Inka, that's enough!"

Inka's teeth audibly clicked as she snapped her mouth shut.

"Now that my shift is over we should be going, come on Inka and Molly." She headed in the direction of one of the many alleys that lead away from the main hub.

"See you tomorrow than?" Squil said as he held his hand out to Molly.

"Of course Squil," taking his hand she shook it. "See you tomorrow, you too Ploosh."

"See ya Molly!" he said as he ran off, forcing Squil to run to catch up with him.

"Bye Molly."

Turning around she suddenly realized Kelp was behind her, "how long have you been watching us?"

"Since you puked on Whark's shoes," he answered making her ears turn faintly pink, "I wish I was brave enough to stand against him like you did. Not the puking part but the punching him in the eye part."

"If you don't like him than why did you join his team?"

"No one else wanted me on their team because I'm a newbie. I didn't realize how mean he was until after I joined."

"Well if I was forming my own team I totally would like you on it Kelp."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Molly we gotta go!" Inka yelled from the opening of an alley with Leef waiting behind her.

"It's nice knowing someone likes me, bye Molly!" He tugged on his ponytail as he nodded his head at her.

"Bye Kelp," she ran across the hub area to Inka as night lamps started to flicker on in the oncoming twilight.

Walking down the alleyway it led to a series of apartments. Walking up to one of them Leef slipped a key into the door as she pushed it open, "Urchio! We're home!"

"Mommy! Inka!" a small object barreled into Molly sending her backwards onto her back. Shaking her head she quickly discovered that the object was in fact a small Inkling kid.

Just like Callie had explained about young Inklings he didn't seem to be able to take on a completely humanoid form and instead had a form somewhat in the middle. He had a general human like form but his skin was still dark blue and slimy. The markings around his eyes weren't very distinct and when he opened his mouth only his three sharp fangs existed since the rest of his teeth hadn't form in his mouth yet, "you're not mommy."

"Nope, that's Molly. She's one of my friends." Inka answered him as she pulled him off of Molly, "she's going to be living with us."

His dark blue eyes grew wide as he looked up at her, "Why?"

"Because she doesn't have anyone to live with here at Inkopolis,"

"Ohh!" He nodded his head in understanding, "so she'll be like another sister?"

"Well technically Inka is your aunt Urchio but if you're okay with Molly staying..."

"Yay! Another sister!" He cried out gleefully as he grabbed Molly's legs and started to hug her. Looking up at her he giggled, "I like having a sister and two sisters is even better."

"Um, thanks Urchio," she said as she patted his head. Something she quickly regretted as a trail of dark blue slime came up from his head and stuck to her hand.

"Here Molly I'll show you where the restroom is so you can get that off your hands." Gently pulling Urchio away from her Inka lead her up a flight of steps to the second floor and to the restroom.

"Your cousin is pretty cute Inka. How old is he?" Molly asked as she washed the slime off.

"He is ten right now but he already is pretty good at staying in his semi-human form for extended periods of time," she answered from her bedroom across the hall as she changed her clothes, "at the rate he's going he'll be able to change between squid and humanoid form very easily once he's 14."

"Could you?"

"Not really, I also was pretty wobbly on my legs for several days after I turned 14."

"How long have you been 14?"

"Five months."

A lump started to form in her throat, "And you don't miss your family?"

Inka stuck her head outside of her room, "Of course I miss my parents Molly."

"Do you talk to them often?"

"Once a month I call them to say how I've been and ask what's going on back home."

"Well, at least you know your parents." tears started to form at the corners of her eyes.

"Oh Molly," walking into the hallway in gray pajama bottoms and a purple tank top Inka grabbed her and hugged her tightly as soft sobs started to shake her frame, "I promise Molly that me and the others will try to help you find your family, no matter what."

"You promise?" Molly choked out between her sobs that she was trying to keep quiet. She placed her head on Inka's shoulder as her tears started to flow faster.

Inka rubbed her shoulders as the sobs eventually to turned into hiccups, "I promise Molly."


	10. Behind Enemy Lines

_Author's notes: Hey guys got a new chapter for you...unfortunately it is also my shortest chapter so far._

 _Honestly this probably could have been part of what will be chapter 11 but I have had an account on this site for nearly three months I still can't for the life of me figure out how to do the stupid line break thingy, (if someone is willing to answer my question can you please PM the answer to me?) Seriously, I've been trying to figure out how to do it ever since I first started to post anything and I've even poked around in forums too and still I have no clue._

 _Anyway rant over. Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 10: Behind Enemy Lines**

Walking in the dim of an Octarian base hallway Octarnick glanced up at the distant ceiling where faint beams of sunlight filtered through small cracks in it. Many times in the last several days he had thought about what it must be like to live on the surface like the Inklings do.

The thought, however, would always quickly end by him reminding himself that he was a young Octoling soldier and that the Inklings were his mortal enemies.

"Hey Nicky, are you actually going somewhere or did you forget where you were going again?"

Grinding his teeth to prevent himself from growling at them he turned to fac3 the two female Octolings leaning up against the wall, "As a matter of fact Octavious has requested my presence Octavia and last I check you are supposed to address superiors by their full title."

"Whatever you say...Nicky," the two of them went into a bout of laughter.

Clenching his fist Octarnick mentally imagined himself punching Octavia in the mouth as well as her friend.

"What's the matter Nicky? Forget how to speak?" The other Octoling, Octarla, quipped causing her and Octavia to giggle even more.

"Maybe we should follow him just to make sure he doesn't suddenly get confused on the way there." This comment gets the most laughter from the two of them and causes an echo to ring across the whole area.

Stomping away he could feel his face burning as the sounds of their laughter continued to follow him down the hall.

It wasn't his fault that he had memory problems, or at least as far as Octarnick knew it wasn't. It had started several days ago when he had had some form of accident that ended with him hitting his head hard. No one was willing to tell him what had exactly happened and frankly he wasn't really sure he cared. Aside from the occasional memory blank it didn't seem to have effected him too bad, but those few times the memory blanks had occurred had turned him into a laughingstock in several sections of the Octarian army.

Rubbing the bump on the back of his head where supposedly he had gotten hit he picked up his pace to get to the meeting he was supposed to be at.

Walking into a room full of monitors and various other technology that Octarnick had no idea how to use he swallowed nervously as he stepped up to a desk where a large leather chair was behind it. Its back was facing towards him currently, "S-s-sergent Octarnick fro-"

"I know who you are Sargent! Sit down!"

Promptly he sat on the only other chair available.

"Sargent do you have any idea why I would summon you here?"

"Um, no but I'm sure you have your reasons Sir."

Whipping the chair around Octavious glared at him with his luminous green eyes. "Are you implying that I would bring you here for no good reason?"

"No Sir." Octarnick replied quickly. He brushed his tentacles away from his face and visual enhancing goggles to hide the fact that he was trembling.

"Good," he leaned back into his seat and allowed Octarnick to breathe in a mental sigh of relief, "I need you for a very important mission Sargent."

"W-what could that be Sir?"

Turning back to the monitors Octavious pressed a key on one of the many keyboards there which brought up images of four young Inklings, a royal blue male inkling, a green male Inkling, a dark purple female Inkling, and an orange female Inkling. The last Inkling surprising Octarnick the most since naturally orange colored Inklings had long since become almost a rarity. As far as he knew not many of the orange Inklings still existed nowadays.

"These are the current Squidbeak Splatoon members, the last one having only just recently joined. We also know they have also regained contact with Agent 1."

"I thought a pair of Octolings was sent to go retrieve Agent 1?"

"There was, but they never returned, nor did they report in which strongly implies that Agent 1 must have taken them both out. We don't know her current whereabouts and looking for her will most likely prove useless."

"Than what is my mission Sir if not to look for Agent 1?"

"I need you Sargent to keep an eye on these four," he answered, indicating the four Inklings in the images, "something tells me they might try to complete their failed mission from six days ago and try to get the zapfish. If they do I need you and a squadron to make sure they don't get it. Do I make myself perfectly clear Sargent?"

"Yes Sir, but..."

"But what Sargent?" Octavious asked as he made it clear that he was treading dangerous waters, or rather dangerous ink in their case.

"I was just thinking that without their leader I would think they wouldn't dare to try it right now. From what I've heard in the reports only the one known as Agent 3 had really any knowledge of our current technology and without him they'll be as blind as a cavefish."

"So you don't think they'll try?"

"What? no!" he said quickly as sweat started to form on the back of his neck, "I'm saying that it may be longer before they try again, so we probably got time..." trailing off he nervously adjusted his goggles.

"Are you questioning my authority Sargent?"

"No Sir!" panic started to enter Octarnick's heart.

"Good," he leaned back in his chair again, "I don't need disobedient little Sargents and I'm sure you don't want to disobey me either, do you?"

"No Sir," Octarnick sighed. He was safe from the loss of his rank, at least for now.

"Good, now go!"

Getting up as quickly as he could Octarnick walked away from Octavious and out of the room, not even daring to breathe until he was well down the hallway and out of earshot.

"I can't believe you chose him of all the sargent we have."

Octavious sighed deeply before addressing the new speaker, "I knew you would disagree."

"Of course I do, you know perfectly why I would. He's reckless, jumpy and extremely immature for his age."

"Yes, that's why I asked you to be here when he arrived. So what do think?"

"I think that kid could potentially cause a lot of problems if he finds out what we have been doing. Like a parrot fish if he sees anything he'll squawk."

"And that's why I need you to make sure he doesn't see anything. If he does it is also your duty to make sure his squawking, as you so called it, doesn't escape his beak. am I clear?"

"Perfectly Octavious."


	11. Close Calls

_Author's notes: while writing this chapter I suddenly realized I had made a pretty big mistake (actually I'm surprise no one had pointed this out to me before now.) Somewhere in one of the sunken scrolls (I don't know which one but it might be the one that talks about their start in stardom,) it says that Callie and Marie are actually cousins and not sisters, despite what their stage name would imply. I think I fixed the parts that were wrong in this case but if anyone catches where I said "sister" instead of "cousin" can you please tell me so I can fix it as quickly as possible._

 _This coming week I'm probably not going to be able update as much as I normally do. I'm going to be helping out at a scouting event for five days and I won't be back home each day until the late afternoon, making working on the next chapters difficult. The following week afterwards I'll most likely go back to my normal pace of updating. I appreciate your understanding and cooperation at this time._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 11: Close Calls**

As much as Molly had found Urchio really cute finding him snuggled up to her while she was asleep had been one of the last things on her mind when she had thought it.

Stretching her arms over her head she yawned wide enough for her fangs to be clearly visible in her mouth. As she finished her yawn she lowered her arms back to her sides only to feel something very wet and slimy on her hand.

"What...?" opening her eyes she quickly realized that a small dark blue squid was nestled up to her side. Covering her borrowed pajamas and her arm and hand in its ink.

"Aaugh!" trying to get away from the squid Molly rolled away from it and accidentally fell off the collapsible cot she had been sleeping on and ended up on the floor with a loud thud, "Urchio? What are you doing in my bed?!"

Turning into his semi-human form he yawned as he rubbed his eyes, "I had a nightmare last night and Mommy's bedroom door was locked so I came to sleep with you."

"But I'm not even related to you Urchio."

A puzzled expression came onto his face, "Why would that matter?"

Before she could answer him Inka stuck her head through the door, "Hey, I thought I heard...?" She quickly spotted the mess on Molly's clothes, "oh right. Sorry Molly I should have warned you about how he will try to sleep with you if he gets scared, and since he still doesn't really have any control over his form..."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that out," she looked down at herself.

"Hey Molly, you're blue now!" Urchio giggled as he pointed at her.

Bringing up one of her tentacles to her face she sighed as she saw the tips had already taken on a similar dark blue as his tentacles and the color was steadily spreading up them.

"If we hurry and get the ink off of you we might be able to stop it from progressing all the way up."

After multiple washes and getting out of the ruined pajamas Molly and Inka had succeeded in getting all the ink off but by the time they had done so Molly's tentacles had already turned blue. When the two of them had walked downstairs most of it was still blue except for the tips which had changed back to orange already.

"You look a little like Callie from the Squid Sisters Molly," Leef replied once she had seen Molly and the current state of her tentacles.

"I do? Wait hold on, who are the Squid Sisters?"

"You don't know?"

"No Leef, I don't."

"Well we can easily remedy that. Inka why don't you put in one of you disks recording one of their concerts."

"Oh sis I'm not really sure that's..."

"Inka." Leef had a warning tone creeping into her voice.

"Fine," walking over to a television set of some form she inserted a disk from a plastic case into it. Grabbing a remote she used it to turn the TV on and hit play on the menu that had appeared.

It took all of Molly's self control not to yelp in surprise when an all too familiar face appeared followed by the face of a different girl who must have been related to her. She had silver tentacles versus Callie who had black with pink on the tips of hers but they both had the same gold colored eyes. The two of them must have been about 16 in the video and they were both dancing and singing in a language she couldn't understand. They both seemed to be having fun while doing it nonetheless.

"They're singing a song derived from one of our ancient songs that tells about the bounty and wonder of the sea." Leef answered Molly's silent question.

"Whose the silver one?" Molly asked.

"That's Marie, she's Callie's cousin. They were amazing back in their day but no one's really heard anything from either in close to a year. Some rumors say that something split them apart and they no longer sing. It's kind of tragic really."

"Yeah, I'm sure is," Molly turned to look Inka in the eye who was, in turn, trying to avoid her gaze.

"Well I think that's enough time reminiscing girls," walking over to the TV set Leef shut it off, "I'm sure you two have plenty of Turf War stuff happening today."

"Um, yeah we do. Come on Molly let's go get our stuff. I'm sure the boys are probably waiting for us already." Grabbing a piece of toast with something red slathered all over it Inka ran back upstairs. Molly, only a second behind her, quickly went after her.

"Molly don't forget to eat something!" Leef yelled at her when she was halfway up the steps, "here have some of this." She held up another plate with a set of toast on it towards her.

"Um...thanks," kindly taking the plate she absent-mindedly took a bite from one of the pieces of toast as she climbed up the rest of the stairs.

"Hey! Why didn't you tell me?" She asked Inka once she had walked into her room while still nibbling on the food.

"Tell you what?" She asked in an innocent manner. Stuffing her Turf War equipment into her backpack she went on the hunt for her hoodie.

"You know what Inka. Why didn't you say that Callie was famous here?"

"Because up until we first ran into her in the Highlands we didn't even know who she and Agent 2 were. Once we knew she made us promise not to tell you until she had told you herself."

"So Agent 2 is Marie, her cousin?"

"Yes."

"Is Agent 3 related to them too?"

"No, Agent 3 is not. The one time I heard him sing he made a whole flock of birds fly away scared that a monster was coming to get them."

"Oh, so Agent 3 is a boy?" a sly smile crept onto her face. "Is he cute?"

"Wait, what? When did I say Agent 3 was a boy?" Inka's face was starting to turn red.

"You said 'he' and 'him' in the same sentence."

"Oh," her face turned even deeper shade of red, "yeah Agent 3 is a boy. He also used to be our leader for our Splatoon."

"So he was on your team before Marlin?" Molly asked, remembering how everyone had mentioned the name several times the day before.

"No Molly, he is Marlin. That's his real name."

Silence followed for several seconds.

"What happened to him?"

"Its complicated Molly."

"I'm an Inkling that was abandoned by her parents for some unknown reason and raised by Landdwellers for 13 years. If anything is complicated it's my life."

"I suppose you have a very good point," slipping her hoodie over her head she pulled it on and slid her pack onto her shoulders, "the Captain would probably be better at explaining the situation but we have to wait to be summoned in order to go to Octo Valley. We're not allowed to just randomly show up."

"How does he summon you?"

"With these," she lifted the sleeve of her hoodie she revealed a black device wrapped around her wrist with purple accents on it, "this will beep when he needs us for missions."

"Missions? You guys go on missions?"

"Argh! I really need to keep my mouth shut sometimes. Yes we do, but the last time..." she stopped herself before she could continue, "you know what? You have a nasty way of getting people to tell you things."

"You have no idea how many times I've heard that from Lily and Callie," Molly replied, stuffing the last piece of toast into her mouth, "say what is this stuff anyway, it's pretty good."

"It's toast."

"You know what mean. I'm assuming I did not just have jelly on it because knowing my luck I would probably throw that up too."

"It is jelly...salmon roe jelly."

Nodding slowly Molly ran her tongue over her fangs and mentally processed what Inka had just told her. Remnants of the flavor was still there but unlike last time her stomach didn't feel nauseated and the taste of it had actually been somewhat good. If anything she actually felt just fine, a feeling she really hadn't felt since before this crazy adventure had even started.

"You're not going to puke are you?" Inka asked, drawing Molly away from her thoughts. She currently held a waste bin in her hands in preparation of such a situation.

"Don't worry Inka, I think I've gotten over that."

"You sure?"

Molly nodded.

"Good," Ink a heaved a deep sigh of relief as she placed the bin back on the ground, "we got lucky my sister, and frankly anyone for that matter, didn't really ask any questions."

"You know with the way you act around her I would have thought she was your mom and not your sister."

"Yeah well when whatever your sister says goes then you would be careful around her too." Tossing Molly's bag at her Inka walked out of her bedroom, "we should get going, I wasn't squidding about the fact that the boys really are probably waiting for us."

* * *

"About time you two showed up. Why does it always seem like it takes girls forever to get ready in the morning?"

"Well Ploosh if you really want to know why don't you ask your sister?"

"Inka I don't have any sisters. My whole family is full of boys. I don't even have any female cousins."

"Then don't ask," Looking through a window of one of the shops she continued, "We should try to find some new gear for Molly."

"What? What's wrong with this?" She tugged at her shirt.

"It's pretty basic and I'm sure you can find something you'll like in one of these shops."

"Hmph, I really doubt it," she muttered under her breath.

"Just come in one of them with us. If we don't find anything we'll leave."

Molly growled softly for several seconds before heaving a sigh of defeat, "Just one?"

"One, then we'll be done."

"Okay then let's just get this over with," walking up to the first door she saw she walked through the sliding door and into the store.

"Um...did she just walk into 'Cooler Heads'?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Did anyone tell her about 'you know who'?"

"Um, no."

As a passersby went past the sliding doors of the headgear shop causing the doors to open the three of them could already hear shouting, "Is that how you talk to a girl you disrespectful mouthy orange tuna?!"

"It depends...are you really a girl or are you a screeching batfish that had orange ink dumped all over you?"

"You...you take that back!"

"Make me small fry!"

"Who you calling small fry, small fry?!"

Running into the shop Squil, Inka and Ploosh quickly found Molly with Moe clasped in her hands while the two of them were having a yelling war. Annie meanwhile was cowarding behind the counter, her pink and yellow anemone hair trembling.

"Okay, that's enough you two!" Grabbing the clown fish from Molly's hands Inka kindly handed him back to Annie while the other two held her back from coming after Moe.

"Let me at that little scaly punk!" She cried out as she lunged forward, sending a tall display to the ground that contained various types of headgear. A pair of goggles from the top of the display landed on Molly's head and slid down over her eyes causing her to stumble and fall to the ground.

"Molly are you...oof! Are you alright?" Squil asked as a wide brim cowboy hat hit him in the face. Placing the hat on the counter he crouched down to where she had fallen.

Lowering the goggles off her face so that they were around her neck she gave him a chagrin smile, "That was a little immature of me, wasn't it?"

"Don't worry too much about it. Moe gets to the best of us."

"Says the person who stomped out of here several days ago."

He glared over at Moe who was now safely put back in Annie's hair, "come on let's go check out a different shop," he helped her back to her feet.

"N-n-not to s-sound like I'm trying to pawn off s-s-something on you b-but t-those goggles look really g-g-good on you." Annie stuttered as she came out from her hiding place.

"Really?" taking the goggles off she looked at them more closely, "aren't these the same type of goggles you're wearing right now Squil?"

"Yeah, but they were pretty expensive to get. There's no way we could afford these for you," he started to hand them back to Annie.

"S-she can have them." Annie replied quickly as she pushed them back into his hands.

"You sure?"

"Yes, you c-c-can think of it a-as an apology for my colleague's terrible behavior."

"Like hers was any better," Moe scoffed.

"But it doesn't fit me, it's too large."

"The band is adjustable Molly," rotating it in his hands he tightened the strap before handing it back to her, "there try that."

She pulled her gray headband off before slipping the goggles over her head. Now that they had been properly adjusted they now rested nicely over her bangs and didn't even once try to fall down past her eyebrows, "they feel pretty good, how do they look?"

"You look tough," Ploosh answered as he leaned up against the counter, "they really do suite you Molly."

"Thanks Ploosh,"

"I think it's safe to say we're done here, thanks Annie."

"You'll be back!" Moe screamed at them as they walked out.

Molly very much doubt she would for awhile.

* * *

"If Callie was here she would be laughing her head off."

"Why do you say that Molly?" Inka asked as she took a sip of soda.

"She knows I hate clothes shopping and look at me now?" in the other shops they had found a white T-shirt with black lettering and black shoes with turquoise accents to go with her new goggles on her head. "I'm telling you she might not even recognize me."

"We'll just have to wait and see if that's true but for now there's one more shop that we haven't been in yet. We think you should go in this one by yourself."

"We all saw how that went last time,"

"Don't worry there's no annoying clown fish in this one. 'Ammo Knights' is where you can purchase and repair weapons for Turf War."

"Yeah and Sheldon is really quite nice and can help you find the right type of weapon for your fighting style," Squil chimed in between bites of a tuna sandwich he had bought for lunch.

"Well if you think I should go by myself then I guess I'll go over there now," she stood up from her seat.

"We'll be here when you come back. Beside we will want to see what you got from there."

"Alright," walking down the sidewalk she came to the shop labeled "Ammo Knights". Swallowing nervously she walked through the doors into the shop.

The weapon shop was dimly lit and really hard to see anything in it. Squinting to try to see better she called out into the gloom, "Hello? Is anyone here? I came in to see if I could find a new weapon."

Suddenly the lights brighten greatly, making Molly blink rapidly several times. Once she regained her sight she was shock to find a horseshoe crab creature with thick-lensed glasses standing nearly in her face, "Whoa!" She quickly took a step back, "no offense dude but have you ever heard of personal space."

"Hello, hello! My name is Sheldon and I'm the owner here at 'Ammo Knights'. I didn't mean to startle you or anything but it's not everyday that I get a new customer."

"How...?"

"I remember every Inkling that has been through this shop and I never forget a face. I have never seen you before so that must mean you have only recently arrived here in Inkopolis, am I wrong?"

"I only showed up yesterday bu-"

"Excellent!" he rubbed his hands in anticipation, "What kind of weapon are you in the market for?"

"Well Sheldon I honestly don't really know too much about the different types of weapons so-"

"So could I explain the different to you? Of course I can, uh..."

"Molly."

"Hmm...interesting name but of course Molly. There are three main types of weapons that come in sets with a sub weapon and a special ability. Mid-range shooter type weapons are the standard type and many of these weapons are based off the ink guns from the Great Turf War. Long-range charger weapons are slower in firing speed but make up for it by being able to shoot strong blasts of ink at long distances. The short-range roller weapons don't shoot ink but instead slamming it on the ground will cause them to spray a large amount of ink in front of you and running with them on the ground allows for large amounts of coverage and the ability to run over your opponents, that is if they don't shoot you first."

"What would recommend for someone like me?"

"Well based on how long you've been here I would probably not recommend a charger weapon. They take a lot of skill and experience to be able to use them effectively in battle. Also any of the blaster shooter weapons take some skill to be any good so you probably don't want one of those either."

Looking on the shelves Molly's eyes eventually rested on a weapon she easily recognized. After all it was one of the first ones to get her splatted. "Hey what about this?"

"An Inkbrush? That is a special type of roller that will allow you to move fairly quickly due to its lightweight design. Instead of slamming it on the ground to cause splashes of ink quickly swinging it from side to side will allow you to cover ink on the ground quickly as well as take out opponents very fast, it does however have the same issue that other rollers have of that longer distance weapons can take you out before you can get to them. It comes with a sprinkler as well as the potentially devastating Inkstrike."

She swung the Inkbrush side to side a few times before placing it on the ground like she was about to run into a Turf Wars. Grinning she lifted it back up from the ground, "is there anyway I can test this out?"

"There's a testing range behind my shop for just that reason. Do you have an ink tank and harness or will you need to borrow one of mine?"

She patted the pack on her back, "No, I've got my own stuff."

"Great! Follow me Molly," pulling a set of keys out he allowed her behind the counter and opened a door that opened to a concrete courtyard with inflatable dummies. "Knock on the door once you're done in here," he said as he shut the door behind her.

Once she had connected everything with her ink tank she allowed her ink to enter into the bristles of the brush before she took her first swing with it.

A large spray of orange ink flew out of the brush and quickly covered the area in front of her. Swinging it several more times while turning in a circle allowed her to cover a decent sized area around her.

"Okay, now I see why Ploosh likes the rollers so much." Placing the brush to the ground she quickly created a line of ink behind her. Rushing up to one the dummies she whacked it several times in rapid succession before it exploded, "Oh! This is awesome!"

After practicing with the Inkbrush for a good ten more minutes she knocked on the door to tell Sheldon to let her out. Putting her ink tank and harness back in her bag she placed the Inkbrush onto the counter, "This is a pretty good weapon Sheldon, how much do you want for it?"

"This kind of weapon I usually sell for 4800 coins."

"Oh..." with the purchase of the shirt and shoes she only had about 2500 coins from the previous day's earnings left, "I'm afraid I don't have that much."

"I can pay for her,"

Turning around shivers ran down her back as she saw Whark, Alga and Neel walk into the shop. A large grin was on Whark's face as he came up to her, "Allow me Molly."

"Molly...do you know these three?" Sheldon asked hesitantly. The expression on his face told her he knew that Whark was not the nicest person in the city.

"Yeah, I know him," she answered him through gritted teeth.

"I'll pay for the Inkbrush for her...if that's okay with you Sheldon?"

"Well...I guess I don't see why not," taking the necessary amount of coins from Whark he handed over the Inkbrush and a fabric carrying holder for it that would strap the weapon to her back when not in use.

As she grabbed the brush from Sheldon Whark lowered his face next to her ear and he whispered, "you make any sudden moves or try to get away you'll be splatted faster than you can say 'smoked calamari'."

She didn't show any signs of hearing his threat as she and the other three walked out of the weapon shop. Pushing on her back he forced her to turn in the opposite direction and walk away from the rest of the shops and any chance of help.

By the time he had finally stopped shoving her they were well out of the city and on a series of piers over a large amount of water. Whark threw his arms into the air, "So Molly...any idea where we are?"

She didn't answer. If he was planning on taking revenge for what she had done to him she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of her playing an obedient little Inkling.

"This is Saltspray Rig, one of the areas for Turf Wars. This place isn't a currently active area so no one is going to know we were even here. And thus no one will be looking for you here."

Sneaking up behind her Neel quickly grabbed her and held her while Alga took her pack and the Inkbrush away from her and rested it up against a shipping container. Dragging her over to one of the edges he dangled her head over it. She stopped struggling once she saw the water sloshing around the structure. Swallowing nervously her eyes quickly grew wide at the sight. The last time she had been afraid of water was when she was five, the fear finally made sense now.

"Any last words Molly before you take a little swim?"

"Heh, heh, swim...that's pretty good Whark."

"Quiet Neel!"

"Sorry Whark."

"Seriously dude you need to work on your evil henchmen skills," Alga said as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Well I'm sorry but I haven't had a whole lot of time t- Augh! She bit me!" bashing her in the head Molly became too disoriented to stop herself from falling over the edge.

The water felt very cold as she hit it, and immediately knocked most of the breath out of her as she quickly started to sink. Panic entered into her mind as she tried to claw her way back up to the surface only to sink farther and farther into the depths. All the knowledge of the years of swimming had suddenly seemed to escape her mind as darkness started to creep around the edges of her vision and she movements became slow.

A painful sensation in her chest suddenly drew her back from unconsciousness. As she started to regain awareness the pain spread across her whole body. The pain was similar to how she had felt when turning into her squid form for the first time, only at a faster pace.

Kicking with her legs she finally was able to stop her downward plunge and head toward the surface. By the time she broke it her lungs were burning from lack of oxygen and was slightly worried about blacking out again. Gasping she partially floundered around on the surface for several seconds before a color faded flotation device was flung at her.

"Molly! Grab hold so we can pull you up."

Tucking it under her arms she held on as best as she could as she was pulled back up to the pier. Stumbling she fell onto the wooden boards on her hands and knees as she spat out water.

"Molly thank goodness we found you," Inka cried as she hugged her, "when we found out you had gone under we..." gasping she quickly let Molly go and stumbled backwards.

"Inka...?" as she got up Molly suddenly realized that her tentacles were no longer tentacles but bright ginger hair and the now familiar feeling of her fangs against the rest of her teeth was gone too, "What?" looking over in the reflective surface of the water had also revealed her black markings around her eyes were gone as well her pointed ears and her eyes had reverted back to the dark rust color from before.

Somehow she had changed back into a Landdweller.

"How is this possible?"

"I don't know Molly, but no matter the reason we have to make sure no one sees you like this. If someone did they might think that we are under an invasion."

"Here Molly, you look cold," pulling her hoodie off Inka wrapped it around Molly's dripping shoulders.

"Thanks Inka, now let's get out of here befo-" clutching her chest she dropped onto her knees as the pain from when she had been drowning returned in full force. Gasping for breath she could feel the pain quickly spread over her than fade out into nothing like it had before.

Looking up from her hunched position she saw the others staring at her with gaping mouths. Running her tongue over three sharp fangs confirmed to her that she was an Inkling again, not that she knew why she had changed in the first place.

"Okay, let's all make a mental note here not to let Molly fall into any water until we find out why she changes into a Landdweller in water."

"I would agree Ploosh." Molly added as she got up again, "on a side note how did you guys find me so quickly?"

"We actually went to 'Ammo Knights' when you didn't show back up. Sheldon told us about how you had left with Whark in the direction of here and so we came as quickly as possible. Unfortunately by the time we got here Whark and the others had run off leaving you to drown."

"Well at least they didn't see me change."

"You're lucky Molly, until we found out why your form changed you'll have to make sure you don't fall into any water, especially in a Turf War."

"Well how many battle stages have water?"

"Here, Arowana Mall and Bluefin Depot."

"Okay when these places are active we won't compete, sound good?"

"Makes sense to me."

"Ditto!"

"Alright, sounds fair."

"Great! Thanks again guys for hunting me down."

"Hey, we're a team and a team has got to stick together."

"Right, all for one and one for all!"

They suddenly gave her a very puzzled look.

"I'll explain it later to you guys."

"Hey Molly who had the Inkbrush?" Ploosh asked as he held it up as well as her bag.

"Actually it's mine Ploosh, Whark paid for it."

"Whoa! What did you do to get him to do that. I thought he didn't like you."

"He doesn't, I think he was trying to get me out of there so he could threaten to toss me overboard sooner."

"He didn't push you in?"

"No. I bit Neel and he hit me accidentally and I fell in."

"Accident or not they should pay for what they have done. You could have died."

"No Squil, let's just let it be water under the bridge for now. Besides they're probably already back in Inkopolis by this point and we have bigger things to worry about." she grabbed his arm as his eyes continued to glow with rage.

He growled briefly for several seconds until he finally had calm down "fine Molly, but I'd hate to think about what could have happened if we hadn't shown up."

"I know you do Squil," wrapping her arm around his shoulders they slowly followed the other two back to the city.


	12. Incoming Agent

_Author's notes: Hey guys, long time no see. Things went well at the scouting event I was helping out at and now it's time to release the next chapter of "Splatoon: Secrets of the Inklings"_

 _Looking through my traffic stats I noticed something kinda odd. For chapter 11 the number of visitors is higher than the number of visitors for chapters 9 and 10. What on earth...? Are people skipping chapters or is something really screwy with the system that tracks the number of visitors for each chapter? I know that chapter 10 is pretty short and a little out of context but it really is pretty important to the story. So if any of you did skip it (or chapter 9 but that doesn't worry me as much since the dip isn't as big with this chapter as it is with chapter 10,) I would highly recommend going back and reading it. You'll possibly regret later if you don't._

 _Also don't forget to leave any questions you have for me and the story in the comments below. Any questions I receive will be answered in a similar fashion as the question I presented to the readers was formatted. (I really don't plan to do a Q and A section like some authors do so any burning questions to you have for me will only be answered here.)_

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 12: Incoming Agent**

"Brush, smush I don't care what you say or how good you're with it. There is no way in all the known animal kingdom that I will consider it a roller."

"I don't get what your problem is Ploosh," Molly responded as she patted the shaft of the weapon in her hand, "unless it has something to do with your butt getting kicked by the team member from the Manta Rays Splatoon, does it?"

"What?" he whipped around to face her, "what has that got to do with it? No it is not because I got beaten by Cass, it's because they're nothing like rollers and that's it!" Stomping ahead of the others he only made it several feet away before a loud beeping sounded from the devices on his, Squil's and Inka's wrist.

"Is that who I think that is?" Molly asked.

"Why in all things squid would he have called us now?"

"Who knows," Squil shrugged, "I'm sure he has a reason."

"Yeah and you said the exact same thing when he contacted us that one time just so we could taste his new recipe for crabby cakes."

"They were still too salty in my opinion."

"Maybe he has something about Marlin," Molly suggested to the others.

Instantly Squil turned to look at her wide eyed, "What do you mean?"

"Oh! Um, well..." her cheeks burned as she quickly realized her mistake.

"Wait a minute...you know?"

She shook her head but didn't dare look him directly in the eye.

"Okay which of you told her?" he demanded as he turned to glare at the other two.

"It was me Squil, she found out about Callie and Marie and eventually she got me to let slip who Marlin was." Inka replied as she looked down at her feet in shame.

Listening to Inka admit to him what had happened Molly suddenly noticed something about that she had just said. Last night she had referred to him in present tense but now it was in past tense, almost as if he...

She shook her head before addressing the steadily heating conversation, "it's really more my fault than hers Squil. I made her tell me about him. I wanted to know more about who I was replacing."

"No one is replacing Agent 3 Molly. You were recruited just like the rest of us were and like us, if you're willing, you will help out to take down the Octarians and prevent a new war from taking place."

"We should probably hurry up and go see what the Captain wants either way," Ploosh replied as he walked in the direction to the Octo Valley entrance.

* * *

"I'm glad you all came at such short notice, even you Molly."

"Well I just happened to be with the others so I tagged along," on the journey there the four of them had quickly decided not to mention the incident at Saltspray Rig to Captain Cuttlefish. At least for the time being until they could learn more about what happened.

"Actually I did want to meet with you specifically for a good reason bucko. As I'm sure the others have explained the Squidbeak Splatoon is not only a team in the Turf War games but a secret covert operation that works to keep the Octavia forces at bay. Being part of this team is a great deal of responsibility and not just any young Inkling will be picked for it. Callie chose you for the team and I'm sure you would make a great new agent."

"Hey yeah that's great for you and...wait, what?! Captain you're not saying...?"

"Yes, indeed I am Squil. Molly is to be Agent 4."

"What?!" all four of them said, including Molly.

"Both Callie and I have been discussing you Molly. She feels you are ready to take on the responsibility of being a full-fledge agent and I trust my granddaughter's judgement."

"But Captain she's the youngest of us all. If anyone should become a agent shouldn't it be Squil since he is the oldest of the four of us?" Inka asked.

Molly couldn't help but agree with her. She had the least amount of experience in the Turf Wars and completely none on these secret missions they had mentioned before. And there also was still the whole thing with her for some reason being able to turn into a Landdweller still being an issue...

"You three have been wonderful in helping this operation stay on its feet but Agent 1 has made it clear to me that she feels that Molly is the right choice for this position...what do you say bucko, you ready for this?"

Instantly all I eyes turn towards her.

"Um..." she bit her lip, remembering to use one of her none-fanged teeth this time to do it. Looking between all of them she saw a mixture of emotions play across their face. Some were scared, others hopeful and one in particular was even now glaring at her with a very cold, dark look with his fierce looking blue eyes.

"Should I take your silence as a yes?" Captain Cuttlefish asked drawing her attention again.

"Oh no Captain there's no need. I'll gladly except your offer to become one of your agents," grabbing his hand she shook it with a small smile. Glancing over his shoulder she looked to see Squil's reaction at her choice.

Currently he was giving her look like he wanted to kill her.

Swallowing nervously she fumbled with a bundle of clothes that the Captain had suddenly trusted into her arms, "this is actually Agent 1's old gear but it should fit you nevertheless. Could you perhaps double check for me just in case?"

"Um, sure," walking over to the shack she went in to go change.

The clothes consisted of a black long sleeve turtleneck with a reflective neon yellow vest to go over it, black shoes with yellow accents and a wireless headset that fitted perfectly over her pointed ears and had faintly glowing blue lights on it.

"Wonderful! It does fit just as I hoped." Cuttlefish cried out when she came back out, "you just need one more thing Molly." He handed her a communicator with orange accents on it, " this is a short range radio communicator which will allow you and the others to talk to one another while in a mission. It is not just for in missions but also for contacting you whenever I need you to come to Octo Valley for any reason. Because it is short range the headset will allow me to talk to you while in missions. Whatever you do don't take the headset off or get it damage, otherwise you're on your own."

"I understand," she nodded as she strapped the device onto her wrist and covered it up with her long black sleeve.

"Please tell me we were not all dragged here to only officially make Molly Agent 4?" Ploosh whined as he leaned up against the side of the shack clearly bored.

"No I'm afraid not Ploosh. I have finally been able to locate a baby zapfish that is in desperate need of rescuing."

"What's a zapfish?" Molly quickly asked.

"They are a species of electric catfish that powers many of the things we use today. The mother of all zapfish called 'the Great Zapfish' gives energy to the whole city of Inkopolis and resides wrapped around Inkopolis Tower. Two years ago the Great Zapfish was stolen from the tower by the Octarians as well as a large number of the baby zapfish. Thanks to the help of Agent 3 we were able to get them back but every once in a while more of the baby zapfish are found to be in the clutches of the Octarians and the team has to go get it."

"So this is a retrieval mission?"

"Right on bucko!"

Molly winced, "Do you really have to call me that Captain?"

"Wha...? Oh, no I don't bu- I mean Agent 4. Follow me to the right entrance." Turning slightly pink in the ears he mumbled something about kids these days before leading to them to what looked like a tea kettle half buried in the ground, "here it is."

"Are they supposed to look like that?"

"Yeah they are," Inka answered as she placed similarly looking headset over her own ears as the boys did the same, "the grate over the opening prevents most creatures from entering into them, but that won't stop a Octoling or, in our case, a Inkling from getting in. You ready to proceed Agent 4?"

The sudden formality briefly threw Molly off before she stammered, "I-I suppose so."

"Very well," nodding her head at her Inka turned into a squid and slid down into the large tea kettle with the boys following suit. Not wanting to be left behind again she quickly followed after them.

Landing roughly on hard cracked cement Molly barely was able to prevent herself from falling to the ground. Breathing a sigh of relief she looked up above them to see a giant rock ceiling above them that where small rays of sunlight would get through cracks and holes in it. "This place is a little dark."

"Octarian's eyes are sensitive to sunlight. That's why the Octolings that do go to the surface always wear special goggles over their eyes to prevent them from going blind up at the surface," Squil quickly answered, his tone clearly carrying hints of bitterness behind the words.

"Squil! This is not the time nor the place to be behaving like a child. You are the oldest one here and you should be acting like so." Inka said to him in a slightly hushed voice.

"Well maybe I don't want to be here!" Pulling his headset off his ears he shoved them into Ploosh's hands, "I'm sure you guys can handle this with only three. I'll meet you back at Octo Valley."

"Squil! Get back here!" Inka hissed as he walked off totally ignoring her, "ah, forget it! Let's just get this over with so we can go home." Pulling a black bag off her shoulder she handed Molly and Ploosh a black weapon before pulling one out for herself, "these are called 'Hero Shots' and they are to be used only for fighting the Octarians. Unlike most ink weapons it has no special but multiple sub weapons are compatible with it including splat bombs, burst bombs and seekers."

"Got it," Molly replied as she hooked up her ink tank to the gun, "hey Inka why don't you have a getup like this," she quickly pointed at the sweater with the yellow vest.

"I told you we are not agents Mo- I mean Agent 4. We are simply cadets that help the agents fulfill their mission. Why do you think Squil is so mad at you right now for becoming an agent instead of him. He's been waiting for months to become one and now that you've showed up you pretty much have stolen his chance."

"It's not like I wanted this."

"Then why did you say yes?"

"I, uh...okay I don't know, but what was I suppose to say?"

"Who knows," she said shrugging, "it doesn't matter anymore. He'll just have to get over it on his own. For now we have a zapfish to go rescue."

Walking through the area they met very little resistance. Only a couple of times did the trio see Octarians and with each one Inka and Ploosh explained the best and quickest ways to dispatch them before they could raise the alarm to the other Octarians. When taking out a guard sometimes they found keys that unlocked new areas for them to explore or an inactive launch pad for them to use to jump over large chasms.

Eventually the lack of action started to get the better of them.

"Hey Inka."

"Yeah Ploosh?"

"Isn't it odd that we haven't run into anything that powerful or dangerous?"

"Yeah...why do you ask?"

"Well do you remember what happened last time?"

She shuddered, "Yes I do, but why are you bringing this up?"

"Because if I didn't know better Inka I feel like we're about to walk into another...augh!" He quickly fell down on one knee as he grimaced in pain from the splatter of magenta ink on his leg.

"An ambush! Everyone split up so that they can't get us all at once!" Inka cried out before running out of sight.

"Agent 4 get out of here!" Ploosh said through gritted fangs as he limped into cover.

"No, I won't ditch you in this condition."

"Great, you're worse than my cousin Agent 4."

"Whose your cousin?"

"Molly! This is not the time for this!"

"Right, sorry."

"Never mind that Agent 4 just...help me over there." he pointed towards where a bunch of his colored ink was on the ground, "if I can get myself into it I'll be able to heal faster."

"Okay," peering around to see if any Octarians were going to attack them she led him over to the ink where he quickly turned into his squid for and sunk into it. With a faint squeak he sighed as the ink started to soothe his injury and allow his body to heal. "Stay here Ploosh, I'm going to try to find Inka."

Giving a slight nod he completely submerged himself with barely a ripple.

Standing up from the puddle Molly held the Hero Shot she had up and started to work around the area as she continued to avoid the occasional shot fired at her from her hidden attackers. When one of them became too over zealous she fired in the shooters direction several times before she heard a screech followed by the sound of a wet explosion. By some minor miracle she had actually defeated the shooter.

Unfortunately for her the defeat of the one had brought multiple others to shoot in her direction.

Dodging the Octarian ink she ducked around a corner. While catching her breath she soon was able to identify what two of the attackers were saying as they got closer to where she was hiding.

"Where did that Inkling go?"

"Who knows, they can certainly be slippery when it comes to not getting caught."

"Do you think it was one of Cuttlefish's agents?"

"Which one? Agent 2 and Agent 3 are ours now and I very much doubt he would send Agent 1 for risk of losing her as well."

"Well I was just thinking..."

"You were thinking nothing! Now let's get going before Octarnick tells us off for lazing about."

"You mean if poor Nicky can remember."

This comment causes the two of them to burst into laughter before they walked away from where Molly had been hiding.

Sighing in relief she inked up the side of the wall with her gun to get a higher vantage point. The sooner they could get out of there the better. As she climbed the last few feet in humanoid firm she was surprised to suddenly be met with a bright source of light.

"Sheesh, who turned on the light?" She asked as she covered her eyes to prevent herself from going blind.

A gurgling squeal answered her.

Pulling her arm away from her eyes she saw that the source of the light was in reality a bright yellow fish creature with long curly whiskers on the sides of its head. Currently the aforementioned whiskers were clipped into some form of conductor that every time the creature struggled cause a large amount of energy to pass through it and brighten its enclosure, which was in the shape of a lightbulb.

"You must be the zapfish that everyone keeps talking about." Molly replied as she gently placed her hand on the container. Whatever it was made out of was certainly thick but still seemed to be possibly breakable, "hold on, I'll get you out of there." Raising her Hero Shot she shot at it until the thing shattered to pieces and the zapfish quickly squealed with joy.

"Hey there little guy, I told you I would get you out of there." Walking through the broken glass she went to work on freeing it from the conductor, "this was almost too easy."

"You're right, it was," a new voice declared as the cold barrel of a gun was placed onto the back of her head, "and if you touch that zapfish again I can show you just how easy it will be for me to splat you out of existance."


	13. Mission Complications

_Author's notes: I've really don't have much to say this time round other than the usual don't forget to leave your questions and comments below._

 _And with that enjoy!_

 **Chapter 13: Mission Complications**

"Let go of your ink gun Inkling."

Molly felt her Hero Shot taken out of her hand roughly as the gun to her head was suddenly removed, "now turn around!" the Octoling barked at her.

Numbingly she did. Tilting her head slightly up she was able to look right into the face of her captor. Suddenly she gasped, "Wait a minute...you're a boy!"

"W-what?" he stammered before regaining his composer and raised his ink weapon back up from its previously lowered position, "why does that matter?"

"Oh! No reason," she quickly replied. At first glance he had looked a bit like one of the female Octolings but upon farther observations she could see differences. His tentacles weren't as long and several were tied up in the back in a loose ponytail that rested on the back of his neck so that they didn't go into his face. Being probably one or two years older than her he was only slightly taller and his skin didn't carry the same pink hue that females of his kind had. In fact the only reason she hadn't caught onto him being a boy sooner was most likely due to her being so startled by his sudden appearence.

"If you think you can trick me Agent-"

"What? Who said I was an agent?" Molly giggled nervously as she backed away from him, only to run right into a corner and became pinned between it and him.

"Really?" He pointed at her black sweater with the yellow vest as well as her headset.

"Oohkay yeah, I guess this does make it look like I am one bu-"

"Agent 4? Come in Agent 4. Agent 4 do you read me bucko?" Captain Cuttlefish's voice suddenly squawked through Molly's headset making her wince. "Agent 4 have you find the zapfish yet?"

"Um...yeah about that Captain, I'm a little bit in difficult situation." She dared to say after a few seconds. Looking over at the Octoling she could tell that he was able to hear the Captain as well from where he was standing.

"What do mean Agent 4?"

"Agent 4 is it?" suddenly her headset was yanked off her head by a pair of hands. Holding the headset up to his mouth the male Octoling hissed into the mic for the headset, "you should have trained your agent better Cuttlefish."

"D-do I know you?" Molly could faintly hear the Captain ask him.

"Wha...? No of course you don't you old coot! My name is Octarnick and I'm an elite Octoling soldier who has your precious little agent. And just like your other two agents she's ours now!" Letting out a deep throated laugh he tossed the headset over the edge into some water that was behind he tower they were on. "Now with that done you're coming with me, Agent 4," he reached for her hand.

"In your dreams Octojerk!" She cried before punching him in the gut.

"Oof!" Reeling slightly he growled something under his breath before he started coming at her again, "So you like to play hardball huh? Well I can play like that too!" As he got up to her he kicked her legs out from under her and quickly pinned her down to the ground with his weight.

"Get off!"

"Not a chance Agent 4! You're not going to get rid of me that easily. Now why don't you be a good Inkling and...oww!" Octarnick quickly jerked backwards when Molly had bashed her head up against his. He started to hold his nose as it started to bleed dark colored blood.

Scrambling away from him Molly tried to reach for her Hero Shot which he had dropped after she had hit him the first time. She was able to grasp it briefly before being yanked backwards and placed into a headlock. Squirming for several minutes she tried to bang the back of her head into his but he had already learned from his previous mistakes and made sure his head was well out of the way. Whispering into her ear he growled, "I can see now why Octavious made a specific point for me to watch out for you. I've heard the orange Inklings were strong fighters but I never really believed that until now."

"What does me being orange have anything do with this?" She squeaked as she started to feel like she might pass out with the limited amount of air she had.

"Don't you know Agent 4? Orange is a dying breed in Inklings. You might even be one of the last of your kind with how rare orange Inklings are now."

"You're lying!" what he had said just It couldn't be true because otherwise that could mean...

"Wanna bet?" He pinched a nerve in the back of her neck with his fingers and caused her to crash to the floor numb and unable to move, he hovered over her like a buzzard waiting for some animal to die, "oh don't worry I won't splat you Agent 4. Octavious has plans for you as well as the agents once he has you all. I admit I don't what he'll do to you but I'm sure it will be most unpleasant." Smirking at her he reached down to grab the back of her vest to drag her.

"Think again Octoling!"

"Wha-? Argh!" Stumbling backwards Octarnick bared his fangs at his mystery attacker as he held his arm close to his chest in pain, "where are you Inkling?"

"Right here you disgusting eight-limb pervert!" Several more shots rained down on them causing the Octoling to yelp in pain. "Agent 4 get out of here!"

"Oh no you don't!" he quickly grabbed the sleeve of Molly's black sweater as she finally got back to her feet, dragging her back down to the ground, "you're not going to get away from me."

"Wanna bet?" Suddenly the Octoling slumped to the side revealing Squil still holding his Hero Shot where he had hit Octarnick in the back of the head.

"Squil! I thought you had gone back to Octo Valley?"

"First off, Agent 4, you're supposed to refer to me as 'cadet' while on mission for safety reasons. Second off I did go back but when Cuttlefish got that Octoling instead of you on your headset I came as soon as possible, by the looks of I showed up just in time."

"Why am I suddenly starting to feel like the damsel in distress around you guys?" Molly groaned as she worked the remaining amounts of numbness out of her arms.

"Well you do tend to-"

"It was a rhetorical question Squil."

"Oh."

She sighed, "have you seen the other two?"

"No, but according to the Captain they are already back in Octo Valley."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm borrowing Agent 1's headset until I can get mine back from Ploosh," he answered as he lightly tapped the headset he was currently wearing, "I could ask what happened to yours."

"The Octoling threw it into the water over there," she pointed at the indicated pool.

"Figures," turning around he quickly spotted the zapfish still strung up in the device and squealing its displeasure of still being trapped, "So you did find it."

"Yeah but I had more important matters at the time such as, oh I don't know...a gun to my head!"

"Are you two going at each other?" Ploosh asked through Molly's wrist communicator.

"No we are not Ploosh."

"Really Squil? You two sure are starting to sound like an old married couple arguing over something."

Both Squil and Molly instantly turned red at this.

"What on earth did you just call us Ploosh?" Molly asked as she tried as hard as she could not to screamed into the mic at him.

"Ploosh perhaps this is not to time to be communicating with Squil and Agent 4. If anything you seem to be making the situation worse," Inka replied as she entered into the conversation.

"Well I..." whatever Ploosh had been in the middle of saying was instantly drowned out by the yell of the male Octoling as he tried to come at Molly again.

"I must complete my mission!" he cried out as he lunged forward.

Ducking underneath his outstretched arms Molly rushed over to the zapfish and quickly finished undoing the creature's whiskers from the device. Immediately it squealed happily as it wrapped it's yellow body as tightly as it could around her waist. Taking several steps backwards she quickly found herself up to the edge of the platform. Turning her head she quickly saw that it was the same pool of water that her headset had fallen that was right behind her, an idea quickly formed in her mind, "Hey Squil!"

"What!" He was currently fighting with Octarnick to keep him on the ground but since the Octoling seemed to be slightly stronger he was slowly rising back up and forcing Squil away.

"Can zapfish breathe underwater?"

"Yeah of course they can. I mean after all they are...wait, Molly I know what you're thinking and I'm telling you right now that could be a very bad idea."

"Only one way to find out for certain," holding her breath she turned around and dove into the water just as Octarnick had freed himself from Squil.

The force of hitting the water didn't shock her much nor was it as cold as it had been when she had fallen into the water at Saltspray Rig so she didn't lose most of her air. Kicking with her legs she swam under the submerged section of the structure as she anticipated the change from before. If she was going to turn into a Landdweller she didn't want to be in plain view of any Octarians or Octolings. Closing her eyes she tried to move very little and stay as calm as possible while she waited.

After two minutes she opened her eyes again confused. Turning her head she could see her bright orange tentacles floating next to the sides of her head and reaching up with one of her hands she could feel her pointed ears. Feeling around in her mouth with her tongue she could also still feel her fangs tightly clenched together next to her other teeth. For some reason she hadn't turned into a Landdweller this time.

Which instantly raised the question in her head as to why that was the case.

The need for air prevented her from thinking too much more on the subject. Holding tightly onto the zapfish she started to swim around to the edge of the pool when something caught her eye. Diving back down to the bottom quickly revealed the object to be her headset that Octarnick had thrown into the water. Grabbing it with her free hand she pushed up from the hard bottom with her legs as she propelled herself the last few meters to the surface.

Gasping slightly she paddled over to the edge and climbed out before laying face up on the hard ground exhausted from swimming so hard as well as having to hold her breath as long as she had. The zapfish was shuddering violently while it jabbered away in its own little language still partially wrapped around her waist. Most likely it was emitting small bursts of electricity into her body but at the moment Molly frankly didn't really care as thoughts of passing out floated around in her head.

A voice calling her name finally brought Molly back to her senses. Looking up she could see Squil running towards her with a worried look on his face. A long scratch was on his cheek that was still bleeding but otherwise he looked just fine.

"Squi- I mean Cadet it's good to see that..." she started to say while stumbling over the necessary precautions before he quickly wrapped his arms around her, nearly knocking her back down onto the floor.

"That, Molly, was the stupidest, most reckless stunt you have pulled by far. You could have possibly died or revealed your secret."

"We are calling it my secret now?" She asked.

"That's not the point! Do you want people to see you change?"

"But I didn't change this time."

"Oh no, you're not going to wiggle your way out of this and say...wait, what?!"

"I didn't change, I stayed in my Inkling form the whole time I was underwater."

"How?"

She shrugged, "Beats me. I was still able to swim just fine but for some reason I simply didn't change this time. While under there I was also able to find this," she held up her soaked headset for him to see.

Squil cringed at the sad state of it, "the Captain is going to have a sea cow when sees it as well as your wrist communicator."

"What?" Looking down she pulled her wet sleeve up to find that her communicator was just as wet as her headset, "oh man! How am I going to explain this to him."

He shrugged mimicking her earlier response, "beats me."

"You know you suck right?"

"I might if you would explain to me what it means."

Molly pushed him onto the ground before she quickly got up and headed in the direction for getting back to Octo Valley with the zapfish cradled in one arm while holding her headset in her other hand. Halfway there a question came to her mind, "hey Squil?"

"Yeah?" he answered a couple paces later.

"You're not still mad at me becoming an agent instead of you, are you?"

He waited a few more paces before answering her, "Molly I was never mad at you in the first place."

"You weren't?"

"No...it's just that in less than a month I turn 15 and I thought that I would finally be able to become an agent now, but I guess I'm not ready."

"I think you will make an awesome agent Squil."

"Really?" he seemed slightly doubtful of this.

Slowing down she wrapped her arm around his shoulder like he had earlier that day with her when they had left Saltspray Rig, "I'm positive you will."


	14. Trouble at Camp Triggerfish

_Author's notes: go team Marshmellow! No offense to the ones to the people who chose team Hot Dog but I like roasted marshmallows over hot dogs. Besides without roasted marshmallows you can't have s'mors, am I right?_

 _As always don't forget to leave your reviews and questions in the comments below._

 _Also shout out to TChurch one of my few regular guest reviewers. Seriously, are you psychic or something because you almost completely predicted this whole chapter. It sort of cool and creepy at the same time..._

 _Anyway enjoy!_

 **Chapter 14: Trouble at Camp Triggerfish**

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you all sent off from the front to go work in the power plants!" Octari yelled as she walked down the long line of Octolings. Even though she had only arrived as a general recently many of the Octarian soldiers had quickly learned not to make her cross since she had such a short temper. Currently none was daring to look her directly because of this.

"So, no one has an answer for me? Well then may I ask who was the leader for this untrained lot?"

Stiffening at the accusation Octarnick hesitated a second before stepping forward out of line, "That would be me General Octari."

She whipped around at the sound of his voice, a look of disappointment on her face, "Sargent Octarnick, why am I not surprised. Did you hit a pole or something on the way here?"

"No General."

"Really? Because if I'm not mistaken it looks like your nose might be broken."

She unfortunately wasn't to far from the truth. The cartilage had certainly been damaged when the orange female Inkling had hit him there but so far as he knew nothing permanent had been done. He would have to get it check by one of the medical officers the soonest he had the chance. The trail of dried blood from his nose probably wasn't helping his case however, "it's nothing General."

"Very well Sargent. I just hope whatever gave you that...or that," she indicated the bump on the back of his head where the blue Inkling had hit him, "received its own well earned punishment. As for the rest of you..." She turned to face the rest of the Octolings, "...if I find out that something like this happens again then you'll have more than just Inklings to deal with, dismiss!"

Instantly the Octolings scattered in various directions to complete whatever tasks they were working on before being interrupted by the sudden arrival of the General. A hand landed on Octarnick's shoulder causing him to look and see that it was Octatia, or Tia for short. She was another sargent like him, but she had on more than one occasion saved his octopus butt from becoming sushi, "I heard from some of the younger ones that you tried to take on an agent on your own...is that true?"

"She barely was qualified for being one honestly. And besides if it were not for the fact that she had her little friend helping her I..."

"You tried to take out two agents out by yourself?! Octarnick you know no Octoling is suppose to attack the enemy solo. If anybody higher up in ranks finds out you have been breaking the rules they'll..."

"They'll what Tia? Send me to the power plants? Splat me? Oh please, anything they would do to me would be bliss compared to being beaten up by a 14 year old Inkling girl and her boyfriend," he turned to go.

"Nick!" she grabbed his shoulder again forcing him to look at her again, "please don't turn this into some sick obsession."

"I won't...I promise," he walked away from her.

As much as he cared about what his friend thought the orange Inkling was clearly a problem that needed to be dealt with. Octavious had given him strict instructions to make sure the Squidbeak Splatoon didn't cause trouble and with Agent 4, or rather Molly since the boy Inkling had been stupid enough to say her real name in front of him, this task would clearly prove more difficult.

Not to mention the fact that this agent seemed to know how to swim. An ability that neither of their races had used since before they came onto dry land. This had instantly raised two questions to the male Octoling's mind upon discovery; one being where she would have learned such a skill and the other how she had gotten over the fear of drowning. One of only a handle things the two races even had in common. Even the thought of being completely surrounded by water with no way to breathe made him shudder.

No matter the reason behind her rare skill Octarnick knew that there was no way he would be able get anybody else to believe him about it. Not only would he be mocked for his random memory blanks but also for having a wild imagination.

If he was to complete his mission the first thing he needed to do was get rid of Agent 4.

* * *

"Hey Molly!"

"Huh?" Lifting her head from her hands Molly looked up to Squil coming over with a can of soda in each hand, "oh hey Squil. What's with the drinks?"

"To celebrate your first week here in Inkopolis," he replied as he set one of the cans in front of her on the table.

"Has it really been a week?"

"Yep, as of..." he looked over at a clock on the side of a building, "...two hours and twenty some odd minutes ago."

"How would you know exactly when we showed up here?" she asked him as he sat down.

"The rotation swap had recently occurred. Back when Callie and Marie were teen pop icons they used to announce what areas were currently active in the rotation. Nowadays to tell players that the areas are being rotated a bell will toll three times ten minutes before the actual rotation occurs. If you don't make it back before the ten minutes are up you'll have a long walk depending on which area you're in because the pipelines connecting to that area will be closed off.

"Ah," looking behind him she was surprised to see that the others were nowhere in sight, "where's Inka and Ploosh?"

"I told them to meet us in twenty minutes so that we can talk privately about...you know what."

Her ears instantly tilted upward at his comment. Looking around again she looked to see if anyone was watching them before leaning forward towards him, "what did you find?"

"According to what I could find orange Inklings are incredibly rare due to the fact that the color is extremely recessive compared to the other colors, which is actually pretty interesting since orange was one of the three original colors that our race came in; the other two being blue and green. From what I read the only way for an Inkling to be orange is if their parents both carry the gene for orange and they pass it on."

"That's interesting and all Squil but that doesn't really help us."

"I know but I thought you would like to know that. Nothing definite says why orange is so hard to find nowadays but a lot of stuff I was finding was also talking about how many orange Inklings were killed not too long after the Great Turf War ended. After digging some more I was able to find police reports with more details on individual cases. Some of the cases did look accidental but others were clearly the work of someone. It looks like the Octarians have been trying to wipe out all the orange Inklings for some reason ever since the war."

"Well I guess that explains why Octarnick said what he did," Molly replied as she leaned back in her seat.

"Whose Octarnick?"

Leaping from his seat Squil stood in front of Molly as Whark and the rest of the Tiger Sharks Splatoon walked over to them, "None of your business Whark!"

"Wow, so much hostility from a young squid."

"Well I'm not the one who tried to drown Molly!"

"Ah yes, a tragic accident but by the looks of it she made it out of in one piece."

"If we hadn't showed up she would have died."

"Squil! This isn't worth it!" Molly stepped in front of him when it became apparent that he was just about to attack Whark.

"Yeah Squil, you should listen to your girlfriend," both Alga and Neel laughed at this while a wide smirk crossed over Whark's face.

Taking a step forward Molly bared her fangs at him, "You call Squil weak and I'll give you something else other than a black eye to remember me by!"

he raised one of his eyebrows, "Those sound a lot like fighting words girl."

"The Squidbeak Splatoon could beat your team any day!"

"Well in that case why don't we prove that by a Turf War. A new area called Camp Triggerfish just opened up this morning and my team was about to go check it out. Perhaps we can use that area to determine who is really the better Splatoon. What do you say Molly?"

"Uh Molly I don't think..." Squil tried to interject.

"Your on Whark!"

"Very well, meet you and the rest of your team in an hour in the lobby. Don't be late."

"We won't," Molly answered as they walked away. Turning around she was slightly surprised to see a horrified look on Squil's face, "what?"

"Molly we don't know anything about that area and if there..."

"Hey guys, hope you two weren't waiting long." Ploosh called out as he and Inka walked over to them, "so what do you guys...what's wrong? You look like an Octarian just ran past you and no one freaked out."

"Molly just got us involved in a Turf War with the Tiger Sharks. It starts in an hour and it's at Camp Triggerfish."

"What?! Molly!"

"I couldn't let Whark bully Squil...or me for that matter."

"Yeah but we have no knowledge of this place since it opened earlier today," Inka sat down in the seat Molly had vacated as she noticed the sodas still on the table, "how long were you guys here before we showed up?"

reaching his hand in front of her Squil grabbed the two sodas. Handing one to Molly he popped the top off of his and took a long sip before answering her, "it doesn't matter Inka. We better get going and get ready so we at least have a fighting chance against them."

* * *

"Right on time I see," Whark said as he walked away from the wall he had been leaning on with the rest of his team, "and I see you're using that Inkbrush I helped paid for. Mildly curious though what level are you at Molly?"

"I'm at level 12 and frankly why do you care?" she asked as she tightened her grip on the weapon.

"Funny you should mention it Kelp here has also recently made it to level 12 but he uses a Krak-on Splat Roller, like you green friend here." He roughly hit Kelp in the back which caused him to nearly topple over from the weight of the roller in his hands.

Ploosh let out a faint growl behind Molly making her jump slightly.

"Your teams rrready?" Judd asked as he held two flags in his paws; one cyan the other lilac.

"We're ready if they are," Molly stated as she glared at Whark.

"Bring it rookie!" Whark returned her glare.

"Very well, teams head down the hallway and we'll begin the Turf War."

* * *

Shaking access cyan ink off her head Molly noticed two things about Camp Triggerfish. One being how large the area was. The Tiger Sharks were nowhere in sight and various paths led in many directions over wooden bridges and structures.

The other thing she noticed was the fact that the whole area was surrounded by water.

Turning to the others she saw equally worried looks on all three of their faces, "okay I think it's safe to say you can blame me for this one."

"You can't say that until we've lost Molly. There's still a chance we could win this."

"Easy for you to say Squil, you're not the one who needs to avoid water." She grumbled.

"Just stay away from the edges and I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I just hope you're right."

"The Turf War will begin in 3...2...1. Go!"

placing her Inkbrush to the ground she rushed forward and zipped down one of the paths. Having now learned after several Turf Wars that the brush used up a lot of ink she regularly sunk back down into the ink she already had put on the ground to replenish her ink tank quickly before continuing onward. Several times she was successfully able to splat Neel since he was primarily the one moving around on the ground and covering turf. Alga, using a Splatterscope, was unfortunately able to snipe Molly several times as well as Ploosh until Squil finally was able to sneek up behind her and taking her out so that the rest of the team would have a brief amount of time before having to worry about being hit from above. Avoiding the edges of the bridges and walkways Molly was easily able to prevent herself from falling into the water.

With less than a minute left before time was up Molly had been rushing across one of the bridges when Ploosh suddenly came running towards her, "Molly! Get out of here be-" was all he was able to say before a lilac colored kraken came barreling around the corner and with a quick spin splatted him in an instant before coming towards her.

Turning into a squid she tried to get out of the kraken's way, but it had already had seen her and had started to chase her around the bridge. As her frantic attempts to avoid getting splatted forced her closer to the edges of the bridge she finally changed back into her humanoid and turned around so that the kraken could get her and send her back to the respawn point before time ran out.

As it came towards her the kraken suddenly changed back into Kelp. He yelped in surprise as he continued to come at her since his shoes weren't giving him enough traction over his team's ink after he had changed back. Molly tried to stop him with her brush but he had already ram into her before she could raise it, causing the two of them to fall backwards and off the bridge.

Molly quickly got herself back up to the surface seconds after she went under but instantly was nearly forced back down by Kelp's frantic movements as he tried to stay above the water. Squealing in fear he inadvertently grabbed hold of her which only made her sink even more in the water and start to swallow water.

"Kelp let go! You're going to make us both drown!"

Immediately he did. Trying to keep his head above the surface he stared at her wide-eyed before he finally went under and dissolved into lilac colored ink as a squid shaped ghost headed back to the respawn point.

For the last twenty seconds of the game Molly waited underneath the bridge while the others ran over her hiding place repeatedly, making her wince every time. Once she had heard the whistle go off she waited a few more seconds before she went over to where she could climb back up. Shaking the water off herself she wrung out her clothes as best as she could to try to hide the evidence of her unplanned swim. Trying to act as casual as possible while she walked back to the respawn point she repeatedly kept looking around for any sign of Kelp.

When she had finally made it back to the lobby the others had slightly excited looks on their faces while they waited for the results. Squil being the closest to the entrance to the Turf Wars was the first to see her as well as see her worried expression, "Molly what's wrong?"

"He knows."

"Who knows?"

"Kelp, we both fell off a bridge and he saw that I wasn't drowning."

"You didn't...?" Inka started to say but didn't dare finish her question.

Molly shook her head, "Thankfully no but that won't matter if he tells Whark or anybody else. My secret is as good as out now," a tear slipped down her cheek as she sniffled faintly.

"Is she alright?" Judd asked as he waddled over to them.

"She's fine. It's just nerves, that's all," Squil insisted as he gently rubbed Molly's back in comfort.

"Well okay if you sure...I have the results in."

"Than tell us Judd instead of making us wait!" Whark barked with the rest of his team waiting behind him.

"Patience Whark, I'll say who won when I'm good and ready."

He growled in annoyance at this before crossing his arms over his chest.

"Anyway the winner of this Turf War is...the Squidbeak Splatoon with 56.2 to 43.8!"

"What?! No way they must have cheated somehow!"

"We beat you fair and square Whark."

"Shut it Sploosh!"

"I told you my name is Ploosh, not Sploosh!"

"Well you name should be sploosh with the way you aimlessly throw ink around with that roller."

"Why you...!" he lunged at Whark only to be held back the other three, "your team should be disbanded with how poorly you treat your teammates!"

"My teammates think I'm just fine. Its just you who thinks otherwise."

"Alright let's not turn this into a cat-astrophe!" Judd cried out as he stood between the two teams, "No one cheated and what I say is final! I'm sorry Whark but their team beat yours this time."

"No!" He turned to glare at the Squidbeak Splatoon, "This isn't over! You can count on that!" he stormed out of the lobby with Alga and Neel following closely behind him.

Kelp, however had stayed where he was.

"Thanks for trying to stand up for me Ploosh."

"Uh...no problem." Ploosh said somewhat awkwardly.

"And also Molly...don't worry, your secret is safe with me." with a small smile he walked out of the lobby to catch up with the rest of his team.

Molly, Squil, Inka and Ploosh stood in silence for several seconds as they watched him leave, "Do you think we can trust him?" Inka finally dared to ask, breaking the silence.

"What choice do we have? He knows Molly's secret...well at least part of it anyway."

"We can trust him," Ploosh responded simply.

Inka turned to look at him quizzically, "Why are you certain?"

"Because I've known him since he was little and if he says he won't tell then he won't."

"How could you've known him?"

"Well..." he hesitated before answering, turning a faint shade of pink as he did so, "...you see he's my cousin...and Marlin's little brother."


	15. An Unexpected Reappearance

_Author's notes: Sorry about not updating sooner. Over the last several days I've been having surver problems which involved not being able connect properly to the site but it seems to be fixed now so here's the next chapter._

 _Team Marshmallows won, hurray for them! (by the way Darkstar248 since I don't have the game yet I can only root for one team or the other so I'm not exactly choosing a side...)_

 _Read, review, ask questions and enjoy!_

 **Chapter 15: An Unexpected Reappearance**

"Alright, adjust your aim a little bit lower and..."

A dummy on the other side of the testing room behind Sheldon's shop exploded in orange colored ink as Molly hit it with Inka's Splat Charger.

"Booyah! I got it!" she cried out.

"See I told you, any Inkling can learn any of the different types. It may take more practice but you clearly have a pretty good idea on how to use them," Inka replied as she patted Molly on the shoulder.

"You might not be saying that for too much longer Inka," Squil replied as he walked up to them from the door.

"Why do you say that Squil?" Molly asked as she handed the Splat Charger back to Inka who started to take it apart for storage.

"I was just talking to Sheldon and he said in the not too distant future two new weapon types is going to be available. He wouldn't tell me what they are but he said their quite a bit different from the current three types."

"Five types of weapons in total? Sheesh! We're going to have to learn new techniques in order to deal with fighting against players who start using the new weapons."

"You can say that again Inka," Squil said just as all three of their wrist communicators started to beep.

"Hey you didn't tell me that you got your communicator fixed Molly."

"Well to be perfectly honest I actually took it apart myself and let it air dry before putting it back together so I didn't have to try to explain to the Captain why it was wet. The headset was a different story and I couldn't repair the water damage to it, so I told him I lost it so he would give me a new one."

"You know you should tell him at some point."

"I know."

"Wait a minute...you're a Techie?" Inka asked with a shocked expression.

"A...what?"

"A Techie, Inklings that have an amazing ability to fix technology are often called Techies. Most of these Inklings do their own repair and maintenance of their weapons for Turf Wars and I've heard that many of them end up being inventors or scientists when they quit doing Turf Wars."

"Huh, is that so? I guess it makes sense. I've always been taught to try to see if you can fix what's damaged first before you throw it away."

"That's pretty much the mentality of all Techies. Marlin was like that too, before..." she stopped as she looked down at the ground.

"Oh come on Inka! You're not still blaming yourself are you?"

"Why would she be blaming herself for something?" Molly asked.

"It's nothing Molly," he insisted.

"Clearly it's not Squil. Otherwise Inka wouldn't be on the verge of tears. Ever since we first met I've had a feeling you have been hiding something from me and by the looks of it I might be right. Now if that's the case how can I know I can trust you if you three are hiding secrets behind my back."

"We aren't hiding any secrets from you Molly."

"Then prove it by telling me one thing. There was a mission that occurred before I came here and clearly something happened that wasn't planned. What happened on that mission that is making all of you wish you could forget it?"

Both Squil and Inka sighed almost simultaneously at her question. "We will, but first we should probably go see what the Captain wants."

"Fine, but after you're telling."

"Deal."

* * *

"Hey guys!" Ploosh cried out as the other three slid up from the sewer grate into Octo Valley. A wide grin on his face, "you took a little while to get here bu-"

"Ploosh, please tell me that we came here for nothing," Molly asked as they walked over towards him.

"Or for crab cakes," Inka chimed in.

"Did I hear someone bagging on gramps crab cakes?" A voice asked before the person grabbed hold of Molly's shoulders, "because if that's the case than I think I need to have a few words with them."

Turning her head Molly she found herself looking directly into a pair of brilliant gold eyes, "Callie!"

"Hey squirt, miss me?"

"Callie!" whipping around she grabbed hold of the older Inkling into a hug and together the two of them twirled around in a circle twice making Molly's feet leave the ground briefly. Laughing Callie allowed Molly to end up back on the ground.

Only to get punched in the arm by Molly.

"Oww! Molly what was that for?" she asked as she rubbed the now sore part of her arm.

"That was for you lying about who you really were...Callie of the Squid Sisters."

"Okay who told her?!" Callie asked as she glared at the other three with arms crossed.

"Don't blame them Callie. It technically was my curiosity that made me find out. I'm honestly not that mad at you I just wished you had told me." Molly insisted as she tried to calm her friend's anger.

She sighed as her arms fell back down to sides, "I wish I could've but at the time I wasn't sure how well you would handle finding out your best friend was a famous pop singer. All things considered by the look of it you seemed to have integrated just fine to your new lifestyle," she lightly tapped on one of the lenses of the goggles that was resting on Molly's head as well as indicated her mint t-shirt and dark blue canvas shoes.

Slightly tugging on the bottom of her shirt Molly turned faintly pink, "Well it's not like you didn't change your looks either."

"Hmm...I suppose not..." she looked down at the loose pink long sleeve sweater that went down to her wrists with a yellow star on it as well as the matching pink knit hat she had on her head with a pair of sunglasses resting on the hat. Her tentacles were now tied up in a bow that mostly was hidden by the hat and she had black shorts like Molly and the others had but her's had a pink stripe down the sides and black shoes similar to Molly's shoes for when she was on mission, "So has gramps told you that you're to be Agent 4 yet?"

"Yeah, actually as a matter of fact I already saved a baby zapfish from the Octarians."

"Already? Wow the Captain didn't wait to make you get your feet wet now did he?"

Molly inwardly winced at her comment, "yeah...funny you should mention that Callie, there's something I need to tell you about..."

After explaining the events of the last two weeks Callie expression had turned serious, "So for reasons unknown as of yet when you go into water sometimes you change into a Landdweller?"

"It's not sometimes since so far it has happened only once."

"Well what was different about that one time versus the others?"

"She nearly drowned," Ploosh supplied which earned him glares from the others.

"As inappropriate as his comment was considering the situation Cadet Ploosh does have a point."

"He does?" Molly, Squil and Inka asked.

"I do?" Ploosh added, equally as puzzled.

"Yes he does. In the one instance where Molly had changed her life was physically at risk because..." she turned to face Molly.

"I guess I must have let my Inkling instinctual fear of water get the better of me," she answered.

"Exactly! For some reason when your life is threatened it activates something within you that allows you to change into a Landdweller. Now what that exact thing is we still don't know but a least we are one step closer to understanding your secret."

"Oh great your calling it my secret too?" Molly groaned.

"Well I'm assuming you're still not telling my grandfather."

"Well...yeah bu-"

"Then it's settled," Callie replied as she hugged her again, "relax Molly I've kept secrets from him before."

"You've kept what from me Agent 1?"

"Nothing Captain," Callie quickly answered him as she let Molly go, "I'm just so glad to see Mol- I mean Agent 4 again."

"Well it is good that you want to get reacquainted but you really most show more maturity. Agent 2 I'm sure had pointed this out to you numerous times before."

"Yes Captain, she has," she muttered like a rebuked child. Something told Molly that Callie's cousin must have usually been the better behaved of the two when they were growing up.

"Good, now I know all of you are thrilled to see Agent 1 back but that is not why I asked you all, or her, to come. We have a potentially serious situation that has arisen and I'm going to need all the help I can get buckos."

"How serious?" Squil asked.

"We're not for certain how serious," Callie responded as she crossed her arms over her chest again, the insult of being treated like a kid forgotten, "We're still trying to get the police to give us more information but from what we have been able to learn the situation appears to be a sudden spike in Inklings being reported missing. So far the number is somewhere around twenty but who knows how many more will dissappear."

"Could the Octarians be the cause of this?"

"We don't know Inka but this has certainly made the police puzzled. The Captain was asked if the Squidbeak Splatoon could help. You can think of this as another mission if you want."

"That doesn't make me like this anymore than before Agent 1. And what about the fact that the Octarians might be still looking for you, don't you still need to worry about that?"

"Funny you should mention it...a Splatfest is this weekend and I agreed to help out as an announcer for some of the games. With so many people there in theory the Octarians won't be able to get near me."

"Aww...you're not singing?"

"My singing career is long since over Ploosh...besides its not the same without Marie," her mood briefly shifted to a sadder one as she looked down at her hands. Shaking away imaginary cobwebs she looked up at them again with a smile, "Since we're still waiting on the police to give us the reports you can use the rest of this week as a break...see you guys this Saturday," with that she walked away with Captain Cuttlefish hobbling after her.

"You know I almost forgot that Splatfest was this weekend. It could give me a chance to get some more super sea snails and possibly reach king status!" a look of determination crossed over Ploosh's face.

"Not that it will matter if Team Pie wins" Inka said as she rolled her eyes at him.

"Who says Team Cake won't win? Cake is amazing."

"No its not, Cake is too sweet and soft."

"Well pie burns and can go bad if left out."

"Only some pies need to be refrigerated and besides the same argument could be said about cake."

"Well, uh...who cares? Cake is clearly better."

"Pie."

"Cake!"

"Pie!"

"Cake!"

"And this is why I'm glad I can't participate this time," Squil muttered as he shook his head at the two of them as their argument continued to heat up.

"Uh, not to sound totally naive or anything but that's a Splatfest?"

They all turned to Molly slightly embarrassed, "oh yeah, you don't know about those do you?"

"Uh, no."

"Right...well every several weeks a big event known as a Splatfest takes place. In Splatfest there's not a whole bunch of small Splatoons but two huge Splatoons that go up against each other in regular Turf Wars. The whole event lasts 24 hours and at the end the number of people on each team and the number of wins for each team is counted to determine which team won the Splatfest. This time the two teams are Team Cake, which will be pink, and Team Pie, which will be orange."

"So you don't have to stay in your own Splatoon?"

"Thankfully no...otherwise we might never hear the end of their arguments," Squil pointed to Inka and Ploosh who were still giving each other death glares, "besides not all Inklings can participate at the Splatfest. If that were the case then teams who don't have all their team members available for Splatfest wouldn't be able to play. Honestly it's the only time in which it is okay not to compete with your team members."

"Didn't you say you can't this time?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go visit some relatives this weekend so no I'm not. But you'll have the other two to keep you company."

"Great," she responded sarcastically as she saw that the two weren't even looking at each other anymore now.

"All I can say really is good luck. I should probably head home so I can pack, see yah guys," he started to head for the sewer grate.

"Um...Squil?" Inka called out to him.

He stopped just as he as about to turn into his squid form and slide through the grate, "Yeah?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Am I?"

She nodded her head at Molly.

"Oh right...I guess we did say we were going to tell you what happened."

"Wait, are you referring to..."

"Yes Ploosh, we said we would."

"Oh boy..." he groaned.

* * *

"And that's what happened Molly. The fact that we lost Marlin was a low blow for all of us since we all have known him for some time..." Inka than looked over at Ploosh, "...some more than others..."

"Oh come on! I told you months ago that we were cousins! Marlin even backed me up on it."

"Yeah but you forgot to mention the fact that he had a sibling."

"Are you really gonna hold that over my head?"

"No, but do you realize that we could have a potential family crisis on our hands Ploosh?"

"How so?"

"With Kelp now in Inkopolis he might go looking for his older brother. If he finds out that Marlin was squidnapped by the Octarians we could have a bigger situation to deal with."

"Well there's hundreds of Inklings here in the city maybe he'll think that Marlin is simply hard to find or moved away out of the city," Molly suggested.

"Doubt it, someone should try to keep an eye on him so that he can't accidentally find out what happened to his brother...Ploosh?"

"Oh no," he took a step back with his hands held out in front of him while shaking his head, "me being with him would only make him more suspicious."

"Well I can't since I'll be gone and I'm not su-"

"I'll keep an eye on him," Molly quickly volunteered.

"Are you sure Molly?"

"Why not? He knows me but he doesn't know that I know who his brother is and we can hang out during Splatfest."

"But that means you won't see much of us," Inka pointed out.

"I'm okay with that," Molly insisted as mentally she sighed a breath of relief at not having to deal with the two of them constantly bickering about which desert was better, "I've been meaning to get to know him better anyway."


	16. Splatfest Madness

_Author's notes: sorry again for this being a little late. The Internet hasn't been constant at my house, making working on this chapter very difficult (as it is this chapter wasn't easy to write...)_

 _Everyone ready? I sure hope so..._

 _As usual don't forget to review and ask any questions you have for me afterwards._

 _Read and enjoy!_

 **Chapter 16: Splatfest Madness**

The main signs that something was about to occur were all the speakers and lights that Molly saw being set up around the plaza as she glanced out the window of Inka's bedroom, "Is it normally this crazy just before a Splatfest?"

"Sadly yes," Inka answered as she tied up Urchio's tentacles into a ponytail for him while he sat in her lap on her bed, "you'll also see very little of Callie until tonight since she works so closely with the set up crew. It's usually best to wait until Splatfest actually starts to go down to the plaza."

"Goody and I have be there with a guy I've run into only three times," Molly dropped the curtain back in front of the window.

"Hey trust me on this Molly you'll have lots of fun at it and besides I've heard that Kelp is a nice guy...or at least that's what Ploosh told us."

"I want to go!" Urchio cried out as he leaned back into Inka's stomach while looking up at her with sad dark blue eyes.

"Sorry Urchio, only kids who are 14 or older can play. You're still too young."

"But I want to play with you Inka!"

"I know you do," reaching up to his chin she started to gently scratch it with her hand. After the first few strokes his eyes closed halfway and he started to do a young sounding purr in pleasure at it.

"So that is a normal Inkling thing huh?"

"What the Soulspot?"

"Soulspot?"

"A Soulspot is a place on the Inkling where they liked to be rubbed or scratched. No two Inklings have exactly the same spot and supposedly the reason its called a Soulspot is because the Inkling you are meant to be the rest of your life should be able to find it without being told where it is exactly."

"So it's like finding your soul mate kind of thing?"

"Well I guess if you want to think about it like that. The only reason I know where Urchio's Soulspot is because I've been around him since he was born."

"Well you found out that mine is behind my right ear back in the Highlands...where's your's?"

"My back between my shoulder blades but why would you...? Hey, what are you...?! No, stop it! This is so not fair! Argh!" Inka finally submitted to Molly's scratching and let out a soft purr as her spot continued to get rubbed and almost looked like to she was about to fall asleep. As soon as Molly had stopped she quickly snapped out of it, "that was not cool Molly."

"Really? It looked like you liked it a lot," she quickly dodged a lunge from Inka who was now chasing her around the room until she finally she had her pinned to the bed as she reached for behind Molly's right ear. Clamping her mouth shut Molly tried to keep herself from purring but as Inka continued her attack she couldn't hold it back anymore and with a slight gasp succumbed to the feeling, letting out a slightly louder, higher pitched, purr than Inka had.

"Girls can be really weird sometimes," Urchio replied to himself as he walked out of the room with a puzzled expression while the two started to giggle as he left.

* * *

Walking into the plaza Molly let out a slight gasp of surprise as she saw the whole area lit up. Many of the Inklings present were already wearing shirts to represent which team they were on. Inka also had an orange colored shirt that she had picked up earlier in the week to indicate that she was on Team Pie, "So which team are you going to be on Molly?"

"Probably whichever team Kelp picks so I can hang out with him," she replied without really thinking about what she had said. Looking over at Inka she quickly realized that Inka was trying to hide a wide grin, "What?"

"You know if certain people heard you say that they might think that you were Kelp's girlfriend."

"W-what?! I'm not interested in him in the slightest!" She quickly insisted as she felt her cheeks burn at the thought.

"Man...I'd hate to be that guy."

Turning around Molly nearly bit her tongue when she saw that it was Kelp who had come up behind her with Ploosh, "Oh hey Kelp I didn't see you there."

"Sorry to sneak up on you girls but I wanted to make sure that Kelp was able to find Molly and now that I have I'm out of here," Ploosh patted Kelp in the back as he walked off, "good luck."

"I also need to go meet up with some people if you don't mind Molly...so see you afterwards," she also walked off leaving the two of them by themselves.

"Um, so...have you picked a team yet?" Kelp asked, breaking the awkward silence that had formed between the two of them, of which the same couldn't be said about the actual plaza since large amounts of music were blaring from the speakers and countless Inklings were dancing around in groups.

"No I haven't yet...but I'm probably going to join whichever team you had picked."

"Oh..." he looked down at his orange Splatfest shirt, "I didn't mean to-"

"No Kelp, its okay...really I don't care which side we're on."

"Um, okay..."

Walking over to the voting booth Molly picked Team Pie and was handed an orange shirt like what Kelp already had on. Slipping it over the shirt she had on while being careful not to get it snagged on the goggles on her head she put it on and followed Kelp to the lobby of Inkopolis Tower.

Dozens of Inklings were already waiting in the lobby making it very crowded and difficult to move around in so the two of them simply waited leaning up against one of the walls for a chance to play. Once they were called up they quickly walked down the hallway to the area they were to compete in.

Spawning at Urchin Underpass Molly was surprised to see that only a girl Inkling with some beginner gear with a Spattershot Jr was the only one there, "Sorry about this but my friend got...Kell? Is that you?" her sapphire colored eyes widen at the sight of Kelp.

"C-Clim?" he stuttered as the tips of his ears started to turn red.

"Oh my gosh it is you Kell. Man, I almost didn't recognize you and it has only been what...three weeks?"

"Uh, well...yeah but..." as the three of them continued to stand there Kelp continued to look more and more like he wanted escape back through the spawn point but as he turned around to do so the solid "thunk" sound of the pipeline being closed off could be heard, "oh great squid above..."

"Well its official...we're a team of three now," Clim said as she stared down at the grate.

"Wait, what? They can do that?"

"Normally the system prevents such from happening but while Splatfest is happening the system is prone to get bugs and accidentally allow things such as only a three person team to play or kick a team member back to the lobby in mid-game if they get splatted. The worst bug I've heard that had happened was when the two teams were from the same Splatfest team, which happened to a cousin of mine about a year ago," she didn't seem too concerned about this fact as she said it. If anything she almost seemed to be excited that what had happened, had happened

"So what do we do?"

"We'll just have to work harder to compensate for the missing player," Kelp answered as he placed his Krak-on Splat Roller out from of him, "hopefully the other team isn't really good,"

As the game started it soon became apparent that Kelp's hopes were to be proven false since the team they were up against had two Inklings with charger type weapons while the other two had a Dynamo Roller and a Forged Splattershot Pro. Halfway through the game Molly had already lost track of how many times she had been splatted and when the game had ended she had started become sore in several places from how many times she had been sniped. They unfortunately had lost 36.8 to 54.2 and each had only earned about 300 coins from it.

"I haven't lost that bad before," Kelp mumbled under his breath as he put his coins away.

"Well I thought it was pretty fun Kell," Clim said as she happily tucked her coins in her pack, "also it was really cool that I was able to see you again. I'm going to go look for Zotter and see if he has had a chance to play yet. Bye Kell!" smiling with her fangs bared she half walked, half skipped through the crowd and disappeared out of Molly's and Kelp's sight.

Kelp turned to look over at Molly, "I'm really sorry about her. She can be a little bit too energetic for her own good."

"Its okay Kelp but I think I'm done with Turf Wars for a little while," Molly replied as she rubbed her right arm which hurt from swinging the Inkbrush a little too hard a couple of times, "can I ask you a question though?"

He hesitated before nodding, "sure."

"Why did she call you Kell instead of Kelp?"

"Because that's my name."

"I thought Kelp was your name."

He sighed, "No, Kelp is the nickname that I go by because I hate my real name, which is Kell but Clim is an old friend of mine from back home so she knows my real name. Same with my brother; his real name is Marin but he doesn't like his real name either so he goes by Marlin. Perhaps you have met him?"

"No, I'm afraid I haven't," Molly quickly answered as mentally she breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't worded his question differently.

"That's too bad. From what I've heard my brother is a great Turf War player here in Inkopolis and I can't wait to show him how good I've gotten over the last few weeks."

"You have certainly gotten good...especially with that kraken ability. I'm glad you were on my team otherwise you would have certainly gotten me quite a few times"

"Thanks..." they stayed in silence for several seconds as they walked down the steps from the lobby before Kelp broke it again, "hey Molly?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure yo- oof!" as she looked ahead of her she couldn't stop herself from barreling into the back of someone who nearly fell down to the ground, "oh my gosh! I'm so sorry about that."

"Hey, its okay you really..." the girl turned around to reveal that it was Callie, "oh Molly I didn't realize it was you."

"Callie?" Molly's face was turning pinker by the second as her friend brushed off invisible dust from her black and pink dress. It wasn't exactly the same outfit she had worn in that video Molly had seen at Inka's house but it certainly had a similar style, as well as a small pink square shaped hat that rest on top of her head.

"Its alright Molly. Say...who's this little cutie?" she asked, pointing at Kelp who currently had his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water while his bright lime green eyes grew wider by the second.

"Uh, this is my friend Kelp. We just finished a Turf War and we are now going to take a break," Molly quickly replied as she saw out of the corner of her eye Kelp's gaze change from staring at the ex-pop singer to look at at her with an expression of disbelief, "we actually should probably get going now."

"Well I hope you have a fun time Molly!" giving her a half hug she walked over to a small group of Inklings that had before been whispering to each other until they saw Callie coming towards them. A couple of them even looked on the verge of fainting as she started to talk to them.

"Man...I guess I now know why she didn't mind living in the Highlands," Molly muttered under her breath, "if I was in her shoes I..." she stopped mid-sentence when she saw that Kelp was still staring at her, "what?"

"You never told me that you know Callie of the Squid Sisters."

 _There's a reason for that,_ Molly thought but decided against saying it out loud, "The subject never came up," she responded as she tried to shrug her shoulders like it was no big deal.

"But how did you meet her?!" he asked as his voice rose in volume and pitch.

"Keep your voice down!" grabbing hold of his shoulders she led him in the direction on one of the various café that were open late for Splatfest, "Alright I'll tell you but only if you keep quiet about it. I don't need the whole city to find out I'm best friends with one of the most famous Inklings one this side of Ocean County."

* * *

"So you met her in a clothing shop...was it Jelonzo's?"

"Ah, no...it was a shop near where I used to live before I moved here," Molly quickly answered him after she had swallowed a bite of the sandwich she was eating. Technically she had met Callie in a clothes shop but the reason why Callie had been there was not to just peruse through the racks. If Molly hadn't showed when she had Callie may very well have been arrested for stealing. Not that she was going to tell him that...

"I'm sorry for asking so many questions," he apologized

"No its fine, I really don't mind answering. Besides if I remember correctly you wanted to ask me something before we had run into Callie."

"Oh yeah..." he looked down at his food, not daring to look at her directly, "I wanted to ask about...you know."

"No actually I don't think I do," she said even though she already had a pretty good idea about what he wanted to ask.

"I'm talking about the fact that you can swim," he said, whispering the last part of the sentence to ensure no one could hear, "Inklings have lived out of water for centuries so the skill of swimming has all been lost to our people...and yet you acted like you've known all your life. How is that possible?"

Leaning back in her seat she rubbed her eyes as she sighed, "It's complicated."

"Too complicated to explain?"

"I'm afraid so Kelp."

"But why?"

"Because it is, besides it could potentially put you in a lot of danger."

"Danger? What danger? What are you, some kind of secret agent?"

Molly bit her tongue.

"Oh my gosh I'm right?!"

"Shush Kelp!" darting a look around them she looked to see if anyone had heard him. Thankfully no one appeared to have, "okay yes I'm an agent. I'm also referred as Agent 4 and me and the other agents work together to keep our old enemies, the Octarians, in check."

"But I thought they were defeated a long time ago."

"They were, but the ones that survived the war became bitter and are regularly trying to find a way to get revenge for what had happened."

"And that's why you fight them," his eyes almost seemed to glow brighter as he said this. A smile forming on his lips.

"Yes but only the agents are supposed to know about this and if the other agents find out I told you I could possibly be kicked out." she gave him a serious look. If she was stuck telling him she might as well look the part.

"Oh no, I'm I gonna get you in trouble?"

"Not if you don't tell anyone."

He looked puzzled for a moment as he tried to understand what she had said. Once he did the smile he had before crept back onto his face, "Oh I get it."

"Good," she allowed a smile of her own to come onto her own face, "don't make me regret this Kelp."

"Don't worry Molly...both your secrets are safe with me."

A twinge of unease came over her but she didn't allow him to see it.

"Hey you two!"

Turning to the source of the voice Molly saw Soral and surprisingly a distressed Alga who looked like she might have been crying since the black markings around her ruby colored eyes were puffy and swollen. Both had pink colored tentacles and pink shirts which implied that they were both on Team Cake, "Soral! What's up?"

"We were hoping to ask if you or Kelp had seen Whark or Neel anywhere."

A lump formed in Molly's throat, forcing her to swallow to get rid of it, "I'm sorry Soral but Kelp has been with me the whole time and neither of us have seen him."

"I told you Soral that he was avoiding me," Alga sniffled as she fought back new tears, "I just wish he could tell me why."

"Alga, Neel is not avoiding you. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for where he is."

"How long have they been missing?" Molly asked as worry got the better of her.

"Why would you care rookie?!" covering her face with her hands Alga ran off down one of the alleys as sobs started to escape from her.

"Don't worry about it Molly. I'm sure we'll find them sooner or later," Soral answered before going after Alga.

"Did you know about this?" she turned to face Kelp again.

He shrugged, "I haven't seen either them all this week but I figured Whark was still sulking about being beaten by you and the rest of your team."

"Well let's hope so," standing up from the table she glanced over at a clock resting on the wall of the café, "I should go back to Inka's place. As much as I appreciate being here at Splatfest that one game alone made me more tired then I've ever been before after a game. I had fun tonight and I hope we can hang out some more later."

"Yea- I mean sure, I would like that. How about I make sure you get home safe."

Giggling at his awkward attempt to be a gentleman she started walking through one of the many alleyways towards the apartment, "sure you can."

After several minutes of silence a question came to Molly's mind, "So is it just you and Marlin Kelp?"

He nodded, "I had a twin sister but when she hatched she was very weak and didn't make it."

"I'm sorry," she quickly said as she felt guilty for bringing up the subject.

"That's okay it doesn't really bother me. My mom is the one who never got over it because she always wanted a daughter, and since she lost my dad about the same time well...it unfortunately kind of messed her up and she really wasn't there for me or my brother. Do you have any siblings?"

"Well I never really knew my parents because they had me live with, uh...a relative so as far as I know I'm an only child."

"Oh that's too bad. I always thought that it was great to have my brother around. It made it feel like I wasn't alone when mom couldn't be there for me."

"I guess when you put it that way I suppose..." stopping in her tracks Molly whipped her Inkbrush out of its protective carriar on her back and pushed Kelp behind her.

"What's wrong?" He asked from behind her.

"We have been followed," she growled under her breath. Looking all around them she tried to pinpoint where their stalkers were hiding.

The faint click of an ink gun being cocked gave her just barely enough warning to push Kelp to the ground before a glob of Octarian ink flew over their heads and hit the wall of a building. Standing up she looked in the direction that the ink had come from, "come and fight me you eight-limbed cowards!"

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" a male voice asked.

"I believe so," a second male voice answered as out of the gloom a pair of male Octolings appeared, but instead of having pale pink skin with maroon colored tentacles one had pale skin and yellow tentacles and the other also had pale skin but had teal tentacles instead of yellow. As they both walked into Molly's sight they aimed their ink weapons at her, "we shall see however how serious she is about it."


	17. Back Alley Brawl

_Author's notes: sorry not much to say again other than the usual don't forget to review and ask any questions that you have for me or the story. If I do get any questions I'll try to answer them right here in the Author's notes._

 _Anyways enjoy!_

 **Chapter 17: Back Alley Brawl**

"What are those things Molly?"

"They're Octolings Kelp...oddly colored Octolings I might add since normally they aren't yellow or teal."

"What do we do?" she could feel him shaking in fear behind her.

"Don't worry I won't let them hurt you."

"Shouldn't you be worried about yourself Agent 4?" the teal Octoling asked as his partner chuckled behind him.

"Depends...how gullible are you?"

"Huh? What kind of...?" the teal Octoling flew backwards into some trashcans when Molly rushed at him and smacked him straight in the chest with her Inkbrush. Shocked at his partner's sudden defeat the other Octoling stood there in stunned silence for several seconds before finally starting to shoot at her.

Lowering her goggles in front of her eyes she barely was able to stop the barrage of ink from injuring them but the sting of the ink splattering her cheeks made her wince slightly as she sprayed orange ink back at the yellow Octoling's face, causing him to gasp in surprise. Given a chance to attack she hit him with her brush as well into the a wall where he slumped down to the ground covered in her ink.

Panting faintly she turned back to see Kelp hiding behind a dumpster, "hey, you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. That was really cool though."

"Thanks Kelp but let's just be thankful that there was only two of them."

"Yeah but the way you talked about them made them sound li- Molly behind you!"

Even as Kelp screamed the warning Molly was suddenly charged into from behind and pinned to one of the walls, forcing her to drop her Inkbrush. Twisting her head slightly to the side she was able to see Kelp yelling for help before being hit in the head by the yellow Octoling and knocked unconscious.

Turned around roughly she immediately found herself directly in the face of the teal Octoling, or at least he was until he changed his tentacle color to orange, "Did you really it was going to be that easy to get rid of us Agent 4?"

"But how? Our ink is poison to your species like your ink is to ours."

"Funny how that works agent. Ever heard of a little thing called immunity?"

"But that's impossible!"

"There's always room for improvement in our species," reaching for her throat he started to squeeze, "as for you, Agent 4, our leader Octavious has given me and my partner orders to kill you so this little piece of knowledge will be obsolete to you in a few minutes. And I am going to take great pleasure in killing you Agent 4."

As he continued to squeeze the lack of air soon started to take its toll on her. Becoming more and more desperate by the second she tried to reach up and pry the Octolings hands away only to make him squeeze harder and make her let out a strangled squeak.

"Any last words Agent 4? Oh wait, that's right, you can't speak," He smirked, giving her neck an extra strong squeeze. The edges of her vision already starting to turn to black became darker still as she was on the verge of blacking out.

A sudden burning sensation blossomed in her chest and quickly started to spread through her body. As it reached almost every part of her body Molly suddenly recognized the feeling and started to panic even more.

Unfortunately panicking seemed to speed up the process.

The first change she felt was her fangs retracting back into her gums which faintly hurt and her jaws having to realign to make up for the lack of the three sharp canines. The next, and probably the one change that saved her, was her height changed making her a good four inches taller and forcing the now orange Octoling to let go since he couldn't reach her neck easily anymore. Kicking his legs out from under him she picked her Inkbrush up from the ground and hit him straight in the back forcing him to fall flat on his face. By that point the rest of the changes had occurred and she was a Landdweller once again.

"Holy mackeral! The general said nothing about this," the yellow Octoling took a step backwards and nearly stepped on the unconscious form of Kelp.

"Who cares," the orange one growled as he got up from the ground, "our orders are still the same and no little shape-shifting trick is going to change that!" he lunged forward at Molly.

Only to stop when he got splattered in the face with blue ink.

"Seriously Molly, why does it always seem like I have to be the one to rescue you from one form of danger or another?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Molly asked as she turned to face Squil, who was still aiming his Tentatek Splattershot at the two Octolings, "and how on earth did you get here? Weren't you going to see relatives?"

"We came home early and I decided to see if I could find you and the others. By the looks of it I came just in time..." he fingered a ginger colored clump of hair that used to be one of her tentacles, "...or maybe not..."

"Enough! Our quarrel isn't with you Inkling," the orange Octoling cried out as he finished wipping away Squil's ink from his face.

"You made it so when you attacked Molly," his blue eyes turning stern as he brought his weapon closer to his face to aim better.

"Squil, Inkling ink doesn't seem to hurt them for some reason even though they still shoot the same magenta colored Octarian ink."

He raised an eyebrow in puzzlement, "Okay...that's new."

"And that's not the half of it!" the yellow Octoling had snuck up behind Squil and successfully was able to wrestle his gun out of his hands. As he did so the Octoling changed his color to blue to match Squil's color of ink before aiming the Splattershot back at its owner, "we can change our color just like you Inklings can!"

"Yep...that's new too," Squil responded as he raised his arms in the air before backing up against a wall next to Molly, "I'm assuming you two are not going to tell us why you guys are like this...are you?"

"Well we really don't know either so..." the blue Octoling started to say before being smacked upside the back of his head by the orange one, "oww! What was that for?"

"For being an idiot, idiot, we're not supposed to say anything about Octavious' plans."

"Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?!"

"Um..."

"Ugh! Why in all things of the ocean did I get you as a partner?"

"Maybe be-"

"That was a rhetorical question idiot!"

"Oh..."

"Hey Octarians!"

"What?!" the orange Octoling turned around only to suddenly find Molly's Inkbrush really close to his face. He let out a sharp gasp before the brush hit him in the face and sent him reeling backwards in pain, his hands instantly reaching up to his face. When he took his hands away from his face he had a long scratch down one his cheeks that was oozing black colored blood, "you'll pay for that Inkling Changling!" he then ran blindingly at her.

Taking a step to the side she allowed him to run right past her and straight into the wall with a loud thud and a yelp of pain. Using the shaft of her brush she struck him in the back between the shoulder blades before he had a chance to turn around and once he had she punched him directly in the gut with the handle end of her brush and with a pained squeak he fell backwards onto the ground before passing out.

"Wha-?" The blue Octoling looked down at his comrade in fear before seeing Molly coming towards him with her tapping her brush in her hands as she did so, "oh no...please don't hurt me! We were only following orders and..." she hit in very much the same way as she had the first one and he went down with a groan.

"Remind me never to piss you off," Squil said after he whistled in shock at the two knocked out Octolings, "you seriously gave those two a major beating."

"My Landdweller form must be stronger than my Inkling form so I could deal stronger blows," she looked down at her Inkbrush which looked a little small in her slightly larger hands, "but at least it was possible to deal with even though our ink did nothing to them."

"Yeah it is..." he crouched down next to the orange one and lifted his goggles to reveal his eyes closed and had purple markings that went around the bottom part of his eyes. Lifting one of his eyelids revealed bright green eyes with teal undertones to the color, "we need to report this to the Captain Cut-" he swiftly backed away when both of the Octolings suddenly regained consciousness.

But instead of them trying to attack them the Octolings started to choke like they had swallowed something that was now lodged in their throats. As they continued to gag their tentacles returned to teal and yellow before purple colored liquid poured out of their mouths and they swiftly changed into a teal and yellow male Inkling before passing out again.

"What on earth? Squil...?"

He immediately shushed her as he crawled back up to the Inklings. Turning the head of the teal one he let out a faint gasp, "Molly...take a look at who this is."

Crouching down next to him she only had to look at the Inkling's face less then a few seconds before her hand flew to her mouth in fear, "It can't be..."

"But it is..." he shook his head in disbelief as he stood up from the Inklings.

"Alga is going to kill me."

The two Inklings were Whark and Neel and they're condition looked to be nothing good.

* * *

"Why do you mean you sent out a team to get Agent 4?! I thought it was my duty to get her!"

"It was...until you screwed up," Octari answered as she glanced up from some battlefield charts to look at a flustered Octarnick, "This mission is no longer your's to lead. Now get out of my office before I call security on you!"

"I have worked really hard to get to where I am now and if you think some Octarian girl who probably is only two of three years older than me..."

"Sargent, are you threatening me?" She asked in a menacing tone as she bared her fangs and glared at him. Even though her eyes were primarily bright green they still held a slight golden yellow tint to them around the edges which made it so that she could easily scare some of the younger Octarians.

But to Octarnick it only seemed to infuriate him even more than he already was. Using all his self control not to rudely reply back he took a deep breath before speaking, "Please General Octari, at least give me a chance to redeem myself for my foolishness from before."

"A second chance? In my books second chances don't exist in war because you won't often live to be able to have such, however since you seem so insistent on bothering me until you get your wish than fine. You can go back on the team for the retrieval of Agent 4 but if I hear anything that doesn't follow conduct or you fail to capture her..."

"I understand General Octari and I won't fail you again," with that he walked out of the room.

"You better...otherwise I'll have to kill you myself," Octari muttered after he had left.

As he walked down the hallway he saw Octatia talking to some other female Octolings before noticing him looking at her. Excusing herself from the others, who then walked off, she came over to him, "Hey Nick, how did the meeting go?"

"Oh it was great Tia," he said sarcastically as he sweeped one of his tentacles out of his face, "we had a nice chat about how I nearly got kicked off the team working on catching Agent 4 and if I don't shape up I'll probably be out of the army for good."

"Well if you didn't get under the general's skin maybe..."

"She thinks she rules everything around here and she's only been here how long?"

"About as long as you have been here Nick."

"Exactly! I...wait, really?"

"Yes, she showed up probably only a few hours after your arrival."

"Huh...which kettle did she come from?"

Octatia shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. Hey did you hear about the new recruits?"

"What new recruits? I haven't heard anything about us getting anybody new here."

"Well I didn't see them either but some of the other girls did and they said that one of them tried to get away."

He snorted, "I bet they didn't get very far."

"Nope, the first set of security they ran into caught them and dragged them back. But that's not the most interesting part of it. According to Octaylor one of them had teal tentacles while the other had yellow ones. Also the teal one apparently made a big deal about it and kept screaming something about that his name was 'Whark' or something like that."

"Whark? What a strange name for an Octoling not to mention the fact that it was teal since our race don't come in teal...and yet..." something about the name felt vaguely familiar to Octarnick but when he tried to figure out why the thought would tauntingly stay out of his reach.

Why was it so hard for him to remember stuff sometimes?

"Hello! Terra to Nick, Terra to Nick," she snapped her fingers in front of his face making him shake his head, "come back to me dude!"

"Sorry about that I was thinking about..." he suddenly realized he couldn't remember what it even was that he was thinking about. He growled in frustration at his unfortunate discovery.

"You know you really should try to see about figuring out why you keep having those memory blanks all the time," she said sounding slightly upset as she did so and Octarnick was almost certain he heard a slight sniffle come out of her afterwards.

"Hey don't worry about me. I'm fine Tia...really," reaching towards her he gently wrapped her in a hug and nuzzled some of her tentacles with his face as he breathed in the smell of fresh sea grass that always seemed to follow her everywhere.

"Sorry," she pulled her goggles up off her eyes to reveal that they had tears forming at the corners, "I'm just really scared what could happen to you if you have one of those during battle and..." she didn't dare finish what she was saying but instead placed her head in his shoulder and started to faintly sob.

"It's okay Tia..." he answered her only to have her raise her head from his shoulder and kiss him. He fell backwards into the wall behind him as the kiss continued. Once she had stopped a faint red blush came over her face before she dashed off out of sight down the hall.

Pushing himself off from the wall he checked to see if anyone had seen the two of them. He breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't see anyone. If anyone had both of them would've been in trouble for sure since it was against the rules to fall in love or show affection towards each other. It was after all the reason why so few male Octolings ever joined the army.

Whistling while rubbing the back of his head he quickly came to the conclusion that he would have to follow up on Octatia's offer of her love when he got the chance.

After he had dealt with Agent 4.

* * *

"I feel so bad for beating him up."

"Molly you couldn't have known it was him and Neel. Besides didn't you say that Whark tried to choke you?"

"That doesn't make me feel any better about it," Molly insisted as she placed her face in her hands while she, Squil and the other two waited in the lobby of the hospital. After she had changed back into her Inkling form and they had made sure Kelp had made it back home they had brought Whark and Neel in and were instantly sent to the ER to be treated for severe injuries and ink poisoning. So far none of them had heard anything about the two boy's condition yet.

"Maybe you should go back to my house and wait..."

"No! I want to make sure they're okay first."

"But Molly Whark hates your guts."

"I know but even then I still feel like..." she quickly stood up when a nurse with yellow tentacles and bright yellow eyes walked up to them, "are they...?"

"They'll be fine," she confirmed, "you brought them in just in time and they'll be able to recover in a few days. So why don't you four go home and come back in the morning. I'm sure they'll be awake by tomorrow."

"Great! You guys get going I'm going to head over to Octo Valley and get this sample over to Cuttlefish," Squil said as he held up a vial of purple liquid, "if this stuff has the ability to turn Inklings into Octolings than we need to find a way to neutralize it without having to seriously injure them."

"Alright Squil, Ploosh and I will help Molly get back to my house."

"I can get back on my own ju-" she was suddenly interrupted by a sudden feeling of exhaustion. Eyes half closed already she was just barely able to say, "never mind," before she passed out and collapsed into the arms of a very surprised Ploosh.


	18. Strange Dreams and A Squid At the Window

_Author's notes: I finally got it! I finally have Splatoon! (No more YouTube videos for reference any more!) Hopefully this will ensure no inaccuracies in my story that could be bad for it later._

 _I would also love to thank you guys for the continuing support this story has had. Currently it has had over 8000 views and I'm sure it will continue to rise._

 _Those announcements done don't forget to review and ask any questions you have afterwards at the end of the chapter._

 _As usual enjoy!_

 **Chapter 18: Strange Dreams and A Squid At the Window**

Walking through a void of blackness Molly wondered where she was.

The area itself wasn't dark since she could look down and see herself but everything was black from floor to ceiling. She currently appeared to be wearing her agent gear and shorts but instead of the headset resting on her head she had her pilot goggles.

" _Why on earth am I here?_ " She tried to say out loud only to realize she didn't seem to be able speak out loud. Panic rising she desperately tried to find a way out of the black.

A sudden sound caused her to turn around and find a male Inkling behind her.

His tentacles were bright yellow but his eyes were sapphire blue, a combination Molly had never seen in Inkopolis except for in Turf War but something told Molly that was his natural color. He looked to be either 18 or 19 and was currently wearing a lab coat but like her he had pilot goggles resting on his head. What was probably the strangest thing about him was the fact that his tentacled hair appeared to be glowing faintly.

" _Who are you and what do you want?_ " she tried to cry out but once again she only appeared be to able to say it in her head.

Surprisingly enough she could hear a male voice speaking back to her even though he didn't open his mouth but whatever he said was lost to Molly since it clearly was a different language.

" _Do you know why we are here?_ "

His voice came to her again, but again his words made no sense. His expression turned worried as he took a step back.

" _Wait, please don't leave me!_ " she held up a hand to make him stop.

He stopped but the fear had grown in his eyes. His tentacles seemed to glow brighter as he continued to stand.

"C _an you even tell me your name?_ " she asked.

Studying her for a few seconds he shook his head as he spoke again while he started to back away even farther away from her.

A new sound caused Molly to turn around only to see something large rushing at her. Releasing a silent scream she covered her face with her arms to protect herself.

Gasping in surprise Molly's eyes flew open as she woke from the dream. Laying in the bed she tried to control her breathing as various thoughts flew around in her head.

"Who on earth was that and why did he appear in my dream?" she whispered to herself as she hugged her knees up to her chest, "And that thing...? It looked like it might have been trying to kill me a-"

The sound of something hitting glass hard rang through the room, making her jump. Glancing around she suddenly realized that she was in Inka's room back at the apartment. "How did I...?"

A similar sound from before immediately drew her attention to the window, where she saw a squid trying to stick to the glass.

Covering her mouth to prevent herself from screaming out loud she jumped out of the bed and walked over to the window. As she approached she could see that the small squid was already starting to lose its grip on the glass and slowly slide down it. It squeaked loudly as it noticed its plight and tried to slide farther up the glass only slide back down rapidly.

"Hold on little guy, I've got you," unlocking the double window she swung open one side of the window and grabbed the small squid just before it could fall off. Cradling it in her arms she gently brought it away from the window, "There, you're safe little one."

Squeaking softly at her the squid looked up at her with eyes the color of the sea on a sunny day, bright medium blue leaning towards cyan. Its body was the same color with darker cyan spotted markings on the tips of its tentacles.

"I don't suppose you'll tell me why you were at the window will you?" She asked it.

It only simply continued to stare at her.

"Figures," placing it on the bed she grabbed several of the blankets and formed a makeshift nest around it. Cooing it snuggled deeper into the blankets and immediately fell asleep.

"Aww, you're pretty cute for a little guy," taking the remaining blankets she walked over to the chair Inka had for reading. Wrapping herself in the blankets she fell back to sleep after several minutes. Still wondering about the glowing yellow Inkling with the blue eyes.

* * *

Waking up several hours later Molly groaned as she rubbed her sore neck from having her head at an awkward angle while she slept in the chair, "Oww...okay that's the last time I sleep like this."

"I'm so sorry about taking your bed."

"Hey that's okay you only..." snapping her head up she found herself nearly nose to nose with a male Inkling with sea blue tentacles. But instead of them being in a ponytail they had fallen forward in front of his ears and the tips were resting on his shoulders.

"Whoa!" leaning backwards into the chair she nearly caused it to fall.

"I'm sorry!" he apologized again as he grabbed the arm of the chair to right it, "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"Well what did you expect me to do with finding out a complete stranger had broken into your friend's house?"

"But I didn't break in. You let me inside," he insisted.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did. You let me in through the window."

"What?" looking over at it she looked to see it shut and locked. She raised an eyebrow quizzically at him, "I did?"

"Yeah and you gave me nice comfy blankets to sleep in."

"Comfy blankets? Wha...?" Suddenly she stopped as it finally dawned on her who this Inkling was, "wait a minute...you're the little squid I found outside the window."

He nodded, "My name is Cean by the way."

"But why didn't you turn into your humanoid form last night?"

"I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because I wasn't...old enough yet," he fiddled around with his fingers as he avoided her gaze.

"Wait...you just turned 14?"

He nodded.

"Why weren't you with your family?" she asked him. She may have never experienced the same thing as other Inklings had at reaching the age of 14 but from what she had heard from the others it was a big deal.

"My family had heard that my big brother had gotten really hurt and was at the hospital here in Inkopolis. I came here to see if I could find him but last night some scary people were chasing me and to escape I had jumped up to the window."

"Scary people? What kind of scary people?"

"I don't know, it was really dark and I couldn't see them really well. All I know is one of them said something about needing more subjects and they started to come after me. It scared me so bad I couldn't concentrate hard enough to try to change even into a semi-hunanoid form. I..." he started to shudder at the thought of what happened to him the night before.

"Hey it's okay Cean," climbing out of the chair she walked up to him and hugged him gently, "do you have a favorite spot to be rubbed?"

"Um...I always liked it when my mom rubbed the back of my head bu-" as she started to rub his head he purred faintly as he continued to rest his chin on her shoulder. Once she had stopped he looked up into her eyes with a small smile, "thank you."

"You're welcome, it sounds like you needed it."

"Hey Molly I thought I heard...?" Rubbing the sleep out from one of her eyes Inka stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Cean being hugged by Molly, "Who in all the sea is this?!"

"This is Cean, he needed somewhere to sleep so-"

"But how did he get in here?!" she gave him another glance and her eyes widened even more, "Also why is he wearing your clothes?!"

"What?" Looking at him Molly suddenly realized he was wearing her clothes from when she had started out, "Cean?"

"I'm sorry but I needed new clothes when I gained my full humanoid form," he answered, turning pink as he did so.

Turning pink herself as she realized what he meant Molly let him go and walked over to Inka, "I need to talk to you."

"This had better be good," Inka replied as Molly dragged her into the hallway.

After having Cean's story explained her earlier shock turned into pity, "man this kid has had a lot happen to him in a short amount of time, and to come all the way to Inkopolis looking for his older brother...he must seriously care about him."

"Yeah," Molly responded as memories of the conversation with Kelp from the night before came to mind, "but what about the people that were trying to squidnap him? Do you think they were the cause of all the disappearances?"

"Who knows, he probably is still pretty shaken up by it to be of any help to us in the investigation. The best thing we can do is help him find his brother and then try to find some way to contact his parents so that they know he's okay."

"Right," walking back into the room they both stood in front of Cean, "hey Cean you told me earlier that you came here to find your brother, right?"

"Yep."

"Well can you tell us your brother's name?"

"Yeah, my brother is Whark and he leads a team called the Tiger Sharks Splatoon...have you heard of him?"

"Oh, uh...yeah I have," Molly said as a look of surprise crossed over Inka's face. She tried to ignore it as she continued to speak to Cean, "I could totally help you find him."

"Thank you!" he nearly screeched at the top of his lungs as he hugged Molly again. Partially suffocating her in the process, "you are the nicest person I have ever met!"

"You're welcome," Molly wheezed as the hug continued. Looking over his head she could see Inka with her hand over her mouth as she tried to hide the fact that she was laughing. She quickly stopped as soon as Molly bared her fangs at her in a soundless hiss.

"Hey what's going on here?"

All three of them turned towards the doorway to see Urchio as he yawned loudly.

"Uh..." was Inka's first response as she tried to come up with something to tell him.

"Is this something you don't want Leef to know about later?" he asked after he had finished yawning.

"Yes," Inka answered him, somewhat hesitantly.

"Okay...I won't tell her."

"Really?"

"Why? Are you doing something naughty?"

"What? Urchio why on terra would you say something like that?"

He shrugged, "Mom said it one time."

"Well please don't repeat everything that your mom says."

"Why?" he asked innocently.

"We don't have time for this Urchio I'm afraid," Molly inserted as she pushed the group out the bedroom door. Noticing Cean's still down tentacles she turned to look back at him, "however it would be really appreciated if you could give us one of your spare camo hair bands."

* * *

"Why is it so hard to find the right room in a hospital?"

"It's not hard if you would follow the maps that are all over the place," Molly insisted as they turned the corner, "see there's room 256 right down this hall."

"Whatever," Inka responded as the two of them watched Cean rush towards the door and run through it, "I'm going to see if I can get parent contact info from one of the nurses. How about you talk to Whark."

"Why me? He probably still hates me."

"Maybe, but we still need to know if he can recall anything from his time as an Octoling. If so than him and Neel could be important assets for finding out why and how the Octarians are taking Inklings and turning them into Octolings."

Ugh, fine but you better be quick with coming in to save me if he tries to kill me," stomping over towards the door for the room. Taking a few seconds to compose herself she carefully opened the door and slipped inside.

What she saw took her completely off guard.

Sitting in the bed was Whark, but instead of the usual smirk and mischievous look in his teal eyes he had a wide smile on his face and was laughing as he gave Cean a noogie on the top of his head, "Cean! I can't believe you're here."

Pulling his head away from his brother's grasp Cean giggled like a little kid, "I wanted to see you big bro."

"Yeah, but does mom and dad know you're here?"

"Uh..."

Molly cleared her throat, causing the two of them to look over at her as she stepped away from the door towards the bed, "Even if they don't they will be notified shortly."

Whark looked at her with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty, "Molly?"

"She helped me get here Whark," Cean replied as he smiled up at her.

"Oh really?" he asked, looking somewhat uncertain of this.

"Uh, Cean I don't suppose I could talk to your brother by myself?" Molly asked him as she debated whether Whark's current expression was a good thing or not.

"Sure, I need to find the bathroom anyway," he walked past her and headed out of the room.

She peered through the window to see if Cean was really out of sight before walking over to Whark's bedside, "Look I know you don't really like me but..."

"I'm sorry," he responded immediately.

"Yeah sure but there's something...wait, what did you say?"

"I said I was sorry. I've been a bit of a jerk towards you and the others ever since you showed up here in Inkopolis, but mainly towards you."

"Well uh..."

"Especially when we lost to you at Camp Triggerfish."

"Yeah but..."

"I don't even know you that well and yet from what I heard from the nurses you and Squil brought me and Neel in all beaten up and out cold when yo-"

"Whark!" Molly yelled snapping him out of his blubbering. She took a deep breath before she spoke again "look...I think we both might have behaved rather poorly towards each other. I mean after all I probably shouldn't have punched you in the eye..."

"Yeah...but I kinda deserved it after I called you weak and stupid."

"But I also threw up on your shoes."

"You were looking awefully green, I'm assuming you got sick from something."

"Yeah, I ate a seaweed and water cress salad by accident," she started to blush.

"...You ate a seaweed and water cress salad? Why?"

Her blush burned even more red at his question in embarrassment, "It's a long story."

"Um...okay," he started to look a little uncomfortable as he shifted under the white bed covers while scratching the back of his head with his hand, "perhaps we could start over...Molly?"

"Sure," she held out her hand to him, "hi, my name is Mollinda but everyone calls me Molly and I'm a team member of the Squidbeak Splatoon"

"Hello Molly my name is Whark and I'm the captain for the Tiger Sharks Splatoon," he took her offered hand and shook it as he smiled up at her, "you know what? You remind me a little of him."

Molly frowned, "Whose 'him'?"

"Oh sorry...I forgot you probably have never met him. I was referring to Marlin. You remind me of him when we were both 14 and starting off here in Inkopolis."

"You two knew each other?"

"We did...once," he almost looked sad as he said it, "but eventually we went our separate ways."

"And that's why you didn't like the fact that Squil left you team for Marlin's. Something happened between you two that sent you apart...am I right?"

He nodded, "Yeah...it's a long story though and I really do- What are you doing here?" he asked, looking over her shoulder.

Turning around Molly was surprised to see Kelp at the door with an almost equally surprised expression, "Oh I'm sorry I didn't know. I'll uh...just wait outside," he quickly started to slip back out.

"Wait no, Kelp you don't have to..." Molly started to say but he was already gone, "...go."

"He certainly knows how to make situation awkward," Whark said as he look at the door, "When I found out he was Marlin's little brother I had hoped he would be as good as him but unfortunately so far he seems only to be good with rollers. Marlin was good with all three current weapon types available. Not many players exist out there like that."

"Oh..." she responded remembering her success so far with figuring out the chargers and shooters even though the rollers was her favorite weapon type still. She quickly decided not to tell him that though, "well I hope you can find someone like that again."

"Yeah," he looked down at his hands briefly before looking back up at her, "say Molly didn't you have a question or something you wanted to ask me?"

"Huh? Oh right...I nearly forgot about that."

"Did my sudden niceness erase it from your brain?" he asked, his usual mischievous look now back as he smirked at her.

She hesitated a moment before giving him a playful glare, "I very much doubt that."

"Well its not like I'm going anywhere any time soon," he waved his arms at the bed in emphasis, "so you might as well ask away."

"Alright," reciting the question to herself in her head she carefully planned out what she was going to say before saying it out loud, "after your team had lost at Camp Triggerfish you ran off with your team following you...I was wondering if you could remember what happened to you afterwards?"

His eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as he tried to remember, "Well I remember running off down an alleyway and only Neel was able to keep up with me so he stayed with me. I kept yelling about how we should have won and Neel was trying to calm me down when we both heard a sound behind some dumbsters. While trying to find out what it was I felt something hit me in the back of my head and..." he growled slightly as he tried to remember more, "...I don't know what happened to us after that because the next thing I really remember was waking up here in this hospital bed."

"That's okay Whark me and some of the others were wondering if you could remember anything since you've been missing for nearly a week. I'll just leave now," she turned to leave, knowing Inka and the others would want to know what she had learn as soon as possible.

"Hey Molly."

She turned to face him again, "Yes...Whark?"

"If you ever find out who did this to me and Neel could you give them a nice big punch in the gut for me?"

She gave him a wry smile, "I'll look into it," she then walked out of the room.

Across the hall from the door Molly quickly found Kelp sitting on a row of benches. As soon as he spotted her he quickly stood up, "Hey is he-"

"Whark is fine Kelp, but he can't seem to remember what happened to him or Neel over the last week they have been missing."

"Oh," he slumped back down on the bench, "well at least he's okay."

"You know for really hating how mean he can be you sure seem to care about him."

"Well uh...yeah, he is my captain after all. Besides you're one to talk, why were you with him?"

"I was dropping off his little brother to see him. He ran away from home to see if Whark was okay. Speaking of which I didn't get really a chance to ask if you were okay?"

"Me? Oh yeah I'm fine those Octo- I mean those guys didn't hit me that hard when they knocked me out, so nothing lasting."

"Good," she sat down on the bench next to him, "I really wish what had happened last night hadn't happened."

"How were you suppose to know that they would attack you during Splatfest?" he scooted over closer to her, "you can't be totally vigilant all the time."

"Yeah but every time I get close to someone I always seemed to put them in danger like my relative that I lived with before a came here..." she paused before continuing her statement, "...or you."

"If that scared me about you Molly wouldn't I've left you alone as soon as you told me your situation?"

"Well...I guess so."

"And I'm still here, so what does that tell you?"

"But Kelp tha-"

"Molly! What I'm trying to say is no one should have to face something like that on their own. Especially someone like you who has been without any of your family all her life," reaching over he hugged her tightly.

She stiffened at his sudden movement for a few seconds but quickly relaxed as she accepted it. Reaching up she gently reached up with one of her hands and stroked behind his left ear.

His ear twitched slightly underneath her touch. He then started to purr, the sound rumbling deep in his chest, his eyes partially shutting as he did so.

Immediately she stopped and tried to pull away from him only to have him hold her by her arms with a look of surprise, "How did you know that was my favorite place to be stroked? Not even my mom knows where it is and yet..."

Before she could even try to explain her wrist communicator started to beep, indicating the need for her presence in Octo Valley, "I'm sorry Kelp but I gotta go," she wrenched her arms away from his grasp and started to run down the hallway.

"Molly, wait!" he called out to her as he stood up from the bench, "please don't go!"

Tears streaming down her face she ignored him and didn't stop running until she was outside the hospital and she had run into an alley. Where she collapsed against a brick wall and started to sob.


	19. A Different Kind of Mission

_Author's notes: This chapter probably could have gone up sooner but between the servers being down yesterday and me hanging out with a friend on Splatoon the upload date for this chapter got moved up a little. Hopefully you guys aren't too upset with the wait._

 _Here is some questions I've received from last chapter..._

 _ **deepcauldron:**_ _So beginning was a "Ty"-in (BOOOOOOOOO!) with the shared universe project? Interesting indeed..._

 _Congrats on the purchase! Which team are you going for Splatfest? Either way good luck!_

 _ **Author:**_ _Yes as many have probably figured out that was Ty from "Of Ink and Science" by Tehreign and yes he is part of the shared universe project...I'm sure you can figure out what that would imply for Molly and the others later on... (by the way why the puns deepcauldron?)_

 _Yeah I'm glad I finally have it too so I'm not finding out new information, (new maps, weapons...etc) after the matter. I chose Team Autobots just so you know._

 _I'm curious now, would any of you guys be interested to see the reviews posted on here as well as the questions I've received? Leave your answer along with any comments or questions you have and let me know. Who knows maybe I'll start doing that._

 _And as usual enjoy!_

 **Chapter 19: A Different Kind of Mission**

"Hey Molly...are you all right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Uh...no reason," Ploosh quickly responded as he held his hands up, "no reason at all."

"Good," Molly knew that her eyes were probably still red and the area around her eyes were puffy from her crying before she arrived but she currently wasn't in the mood to talk about it to anyone at the moment, "now can anyone please tell me why we're here?"

Squil quickly answered her, "The Captain called us here to discuss the contents of the vial I brought him late last night."

"Oh," Molly's ears pricked upwards as her interest partially grew, "well what are we waiting for?"

"Well for one thing Inka is not here. Actually I'm surprised she isn't here, wasn't she with you?"

A faint blush crossed her cheeks, "We ran into a little issue this morning, she'll be here shortly."

"Um...okay," Squil said, without asking farther on the subject much to Molly's relief, "well we're also waiting for Callie to show up. She's the one who actually found someone to test the substance and she hasn't showed up yet."

"Well here's one less thing for you to wait on then," Callie cried out as she came up from the grate wearing her usual disguise to hide her identity as one of the Squid Sisters, "have any of you seen the Captain?"

"Yeah he's in the shack," Ploosh answered as she headed in.

Several minutes later Inka slid up through the grate and walked over to Molly and the others, "Hey guys sorry about making you wait I had to deal with a uh...technical difficulty."

"Yeah that's what Molly said you were do- oww!" falling backwards Ploosh moaned as he landed on the ground while holding his foot in pain, "But I'm sure whatever it was wasn't that important for us to know," he said as he continued to hold the injured foot.

"Yes...it wasn't," Molly replied walking over to Inka while Squil was distracted with Ploosh, "so is it...?"

"Yes, Cean's and Whark's parents have been notified and will be arriving shortly to Inkopolis," she whispered into Molly's ear, "do you plan on...?"

"No!" Molly hissed back, "I'll tell the boys later."

Inka groaned, "You know this could backfire on you, right?"

"I know, but if Squil finds out he might take it the wrong way since he still hasn't gotten over Whark trying to drown me."

"What could I take the wrong way?"

Molly nearly bit her tongue as she turned around to find Squil standing behind her, "nothing Squil!"

"Uh...alright," he took a step back, surprised by her flustered behavior, "I won't ask then..."

"Okay Agent 4 and cadets here-" Callie froze in mid-sentence as she and Cuttlefish saw Ploosh trying to ease the pain in his foot, Molly with her face turning redder by the second, Squil totally puzzled at Molly's reaction and Inka with her face in her hands, "uh...did we miss something?"

"No Agent 1, Captain Cuttlefish!" all four said at the same time, causing the two to be even more confused.

"Well...okay," Callie said hesitating for a second, "so I have received word back from my friend about the substance."

"This friend is not a boyfriend is it?" Ploosh asked, finally standing up but still clearly favoring his left foot.

Callie glared at him before continuing, "Anyways from what he has been able to learn the substance seems to be simple Octarian ink."

"But normal Octarian ink can't turn Inklings into Octolings."

"We know Inka but without anything to reference to we can't tell what is so special about it."

"Why do I have a feeling that this could be potentially bad for us?" Ploosh said to no one in particular.

"Well unfortunately Bucko you might be right on the dangerous part of the matter," Cuttlefish replied as he tapped his cane on the ground, "in order for us to be able to find out the difference between it and normal Octarian ink we will need to aquire a sample of Octarian ink. Also it must be the ink from an Octoling since the sample came from two Inklings who had become Octolings."

"But how in Terra do you expect us to get some Octarian ink from an Octoling without getting splatted in the process?" Inka demanded as she placed her hands on her hips.

"The four of you will be split up into pairs and each pair will go into one of two kettles where we know an Octoling base camp will be," Callie stated as she handed Molly and Inka each a tablet like device, "these have a map for you so you can get around without being seen. You can thank me, Agent 2 and Agent 3 for getting this information, it took several years to get all of it."

"Each pair will be required to retrieve a sample from an Octoling by using this..." holding two small objects that looked like a cross between a crossbow and a dart gun Cuttlefish handed each over to Squil and Ploosh, " since you will only be able to retrieve a sample if the Octoling is alive these will make it easier to get it. Pulling the trigger will allow you to dart an Octoling with a toxin that knock the Octoling unconscious and thus allow you to get a sample of Octarian ink."

"So to put it simply we just go in, dart an Octoling, get the ink sample and get out of there without bringing too much attention to ourselves, am I right?" Ploosh asked as he looked at the dart gun in his hands skeptically.

"Right on Bucko" Callie cried out with a cheesy grin.

Cuttlefish immediately barked at her harshly, "Callie that wasn't exactly appropriate for this current situation. This is very serious and potentially extremely dangerous for Agent 4 and the others."

"But I-"

"I'm sorry Agent 1 but I need you on your best behavior right now."

She rolled her eyes as she grumbled something unintelligible under her breath.

"Speaking Calamarese won't do you any good either. You know I still remember most of it from when I was younger."

"Argh!" Growling Callie stomped off behind the shack and out of sight.

Molly tried to go after her only to be stopped by Squil placing a hand on her shoulder, "let her blow off some steam."

"I have been her friend far longer than any of you guys have been," tugging her shoulder away from him she run towards where she had last seen Callie.

Molly found her leaning up against the back wall of the shack and crying softly. Seeing her Callie quickly wiped away tears and stood up as she tried to muster up a serious expression, "Molly why aren't you planning out how to accomplish your mission?"

"Because I saw a friend who was hurting inside," Molly answered as she walked up to her, "I don't think I've ever seen Cuttlefish so furious before."

"I have...unfortunately," Callie replied as she slumped back down to the ground, "I really do wish sometimes he would see me more as his granddaughter and less as Agent 1. Both me and Marie never saw him as a normal grandfather ever since my parents died when I was five and Marie's when she was only two."

"So you've known each other like sisters for years even though you're cousins?" Molly asked as she sat down next to her.

A small smile played over her lips, "Yeah, I guess you could say that. When we both started living together she refused to speak to me for weeks and I drove her and Gramps nuts with my crazy antics around the house. But after awhile we discovered that even though we are so different there was at least one thing we had in common."

"What's that?"

"We both loved to sing," Callie then suddenly started to sing something in another language, her voice gently warbling as she did so. After singing several lines she stopped as a faint blush crossed over her cheeks, "I'm a little rusty it seems though."

"Really? I thought it was beautiful. What language is it in though?"

"The language is called Calamarese. Inklings used to speak it regularly many hundreds of years ago but has long since become pretty much unused except in writing and old folk songs. During the Great Turf War Calamarese was used as secret language so that the Octarians couldn't use spies or listening devices to discover military information, which is why Gramps knows Calamarese. Once we were old enough he taught me and Marie how to speak it so that when we were on team missions we could still talk to each other."

"What does it sound like spoken instead of sang?" Molly asked, getting curiouser by the second, "can you say something in it?"

She did and after the first few syllables Molly recognized the language immediately for the same language the yellow Inkling with the blue eyes in her dream had spoken to her in. She gasp slightly causing Callie to stop mid-syllable, "Molly, is something wrong?"

"No, I'm sorry about that," she quickly apologized, "just hearing it spoken out loud took me off guard because it sounds so cool."

"Well if you want I could teach you how to speak it."

"Really?" thoughts of being able to understand what the Inkling had been trying to tell swam through her mind, "could you really teach me to speak Calamarese?"

"Sure, I tried teaching Marlin but he kept getting frustrated with it and eventually lost interest. You seem like you would be determined enough to get through it."

"You're awesome Callie!" reaching over Molly hugged her in a tight hug before letting her go quickly, "say Callie, can I ask a random question?"

"Ooh, random question of the day from Molly?" she giggled, a sound Molly hadn't really heard since before they left the Highlands, "shoot away Molly."

Swallowing nervously she nodded, "Can a Inkling's tentacles glow?"

Callie raised an eyebrow "Glow?"

"Like a firefly, not a harsh brightness but still clearly noticeable, probably even more so if it was in a dark room."

"Um no...I don't suppose you're going to explain where this question came from?"

Molly sighed before retelling her dream from the night before. Callie didn't speak once until Molly was done saying her dream but her expression told Molly that she was slightly worried about it, "I've never heard of an Inkling with glowing tentacles, nor of an Inkling who had different colored eyes from their natural tentacle color for that matter."

"But your eyes are gold while your tentacles are black with pink tips."

"Black and gray Inklings always have gold eyes. It's part of the mutation of the color, like how albino animals always have red or pink eyes. If I didn't have the mutation my color would probably be pink, this is the only exception," she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "whatever makes his tentacles glow must have cause the difference in tentacle color to his eye color."

"At least something like that didn't happen to me," Molly said gratefully.

"Um..." Callie suddenly looked down at her hands.

"What?"

"Nobody has told you huh?"

"Told me what?" Molly asked as fear rose in her.

"What your eyes do when you...change."

"No, why? What do they do?"

"They um, sort of...flash."

"Flash? Flash like how?"

"They sort of briefly glow orange seconds before you change."

"They do?"

She nodded sadly, "It's one of the reasons I knew you couldn't be human."

"I was doing it before?"

"Yes, it usually occurred when you were under large amounts of stress but it seems what ever causes your ability to change into a human indicates itself by your eyes flashing just before you change."

"Oh great, as if I wasn't weird enough as it is I just found out my eyes flash bright orange and I've had a dream of a guy who has glowing tentacles and blue eyes," Molly groaned as she leaned her head against the metal siding of the shack, "Callie what's wrong with me?"

"Well I would say puberty but then you might throw a towel in my face again," she answered as a smile crept back onto her face.

A similar smile ended up on Molly's face as well, "I guess its a good thing I don't have any towels handy with me at the moment."

The two of them went into a bout of laughter for several minutes before getting up to rejoin the rest of the group.

* * *

"This has got to be the worst mission I have ever been on."

"Squil, we've only been here thirty minutes," Molly pointed out as she continued to scan the area for signs of any Octarians from their viewpoint on top of some abandoned buildings. So far it had been fairly quiet but she knew from experience that could change in a moment.

"Yeah but never have I been on a mission that was so boring."

She turned to look at him, "You're bored?"

"Um...yeah?"

Molly sighed as she shook her head at him, "somebody doesn't get the concept of patience."

"What? I totally know about patience."

"Yeah, but you lack the capacity to have it."

"Are you sug-" he started to say before a noise caused the two of them to turn in time to see someone coming in their direction.

Hunkering down behind a stone wall they continued to watch as the figure raced through corridors while looking from time to time behind itself, "It's an Octoling alright but why does it look like it might be running away from something?"

"Who cares Molly, let's just get it and retrieve the ink so we can get out of here," raising the dart gun he aimed it for several seconds before releasing the trigger with a loud click.

A faint yelp followed by the Octoling crashing to the floor was their only indication that the tranquilizer dart had found its mark. By the time Molly and Squil had climbed down from their hiding place the Octoling was out cold.

"She looks like she can't be older then maybe 17 or 18," Molly remarked as she gently brushed a tentacle away from its face.

"That's because they start training them as soon as they can turn humanoid, which is the age of 14 like us," Squil answered from behind the Octoling. Luckily for them the Octolings used ink tanks of similar design to their own for their ink weapons. All Squil had to do was unscrew the release valve on the bottom of the tank and drip the contents into a small flask for carrying their sample of Octarian ink.

"So they are a bit like us huh?" crouching down next to the Octoling Molly gently lifted up the Octoling's goggles up so that her closed eyes were visible with their purple markings around the bottom half of her eyes, "why would two races so similar to each other have so much hate for each other?"

"That's something we may never fully understand Molly," standing up Squil held up the flask with a wide smile on his face, "for now we should probably focus on getting this back to Cuttlefish."

"Right," starting to stand back up Molly suddenly noticed that the Octoling appeared to have something in its hands that it was holding clutched close to its chest. Prying up its fingers from the object Molly grabbed it and brought it up closer to her face.

The object was spherical in shape and about the size of a large orange or a mango. The whole thing was colored the same color as Octarian ink but it wasn't burning Molly's hands as she continued to hold it and was mostly smooth except for the occasional texture like it had small pores on it, "Squil...what is this?" She held it out for him to see.

Immediately his eyes grew wide as his gaze fell on it, "You don't know what that is?"

Before she could answer the sounds of a large group of people came towards them and was rapidly getting closer, "We got to get out of here!" grabbing her arm he pulled her in the direction of the exit.

"But what about...?"

"The Octoling will wake up shortly but if any others see us they'll splat us for sure," handing the flask over to her he indicated for her to put it in the bag she had slung over her shoulder. She did and placed the purple sphere in with it.

After avoiding several Octarian patrols Molly and Squid were able to slip back through the tea kettle entrance for the Octarian base and found Cuttlefish and Callie waiting for them, "How'd it go down there?"

"Great, show them Molly."

Opening the bag up Molly held up the vial before handing it over to Callie, "The plan worked perfectly and we were able to get it after about half an hour of waiting."

Squil grumbled something under his breath about the wait but Molly chose to ignore him.

"Great Agent 4, Cadet Squil, now we just need to wait for the others to show up."

Molly frowned, "Inka and Ploosh haven't made it back yet?"

"No, but we weren't sure how long this mission was going to take you four to complete. Since you had such quick success you could choose to stay or head home for the night."

"If I head home without Ploosh my parents will ask questions," Squil quickly explained, "so I should probably stay here until they get back."

"You could come with me back to Inka's house. Leef is doing the late night shift at the café and I have a key so I could let us in. You could tell your parents you and Ploosh went to hang out there for the night so they don't have to worry."

"Actually that is a pretty good idea. I'm going to call them and see if that'll work," pulling out a phone in the basic shape of a squid he started to dial a number on it and walked a little ways away to use it.

"So...mildly curious Molly, have you told the others about your dream yet," Callie asked as they watched Squil's interactions with his parents on the phone.

"No...and I'm not sure whether I should or not."

"It might be best to keep it under wraps for now. We have no idea who that was in your dream nor do we know what he wanted from you. For all we know it could be a vision of the future or something."

"A vision? Really Callie?" she gave her a skeptical look.

"Hey don't knock the vision until we can prove it won't come true!"

The two of them laughed for a few moments before Squil walked back over to them while putting his phone away, "They believed it so I'm good now."

"Cool, we should get going before it gets too much later. See you tomorrow Captain Cuttlefish and Callie."

"Alright Buckos," Cuttlefish responded with a salute.

"We'll tell the others where you two went when they get back," Callie added just before the two of them jumped down the sewer grate back to Inkopolis.

* * *

"Are you sure no one will know I was here?" Squil asked as Molly placed the key into the front door lock.

"Well there's one person who will know, but he'll promise not to say anything if I ask him," she opened the door and allowed Squil to enter first.

"Really? Who is it?"

"Molly! You're back!" a dark blue blur rush towards them and hit Squil squarely in the chest causing him to fall on his knees to the floor gasping. A small dark blue squid still clinging to his chest.

"Well I guess that answered that question," Squil wheezed as he struggled to get air into his lungs again.

"I'm so sorry Squil! I should have warned you about how he likes to tackle people as they come in through the door," gently tugging on the young squid she pulled him off of Squil's shirt with a slight popping sound as his suckers let go.

Placing him on the ground Urchio shifted into his semi-humanoid form with a look of worry on his face, "I'm sorry Molly," he cried out on the verge of tears, "I didn't mean to hurt him!"

"It's okay, you only winded me that's all," Squil insisted as he got back to his feet. Lowering his hand down to Urchio he gave him a friendly smile, "my name is Squil."

Urchio took the offered hand in his slightly webbed ones, "I'm Urchio and I'm Inka's nephew!" he shook Squil's hand wildly for several seconds.

"Well it's nice to finally meet you Urchio," Squil answered as he took back his throughly shaken hand, "Inka has told me a lot about you."

"Really?" his dark blue eyes grew wide, "How come she's never mentioned you? Are you her boyfriend?"

"W-what?" he stammered as his face turned red, "n-n-no I'm n-not her boyfriend."

"Oh..." he then turned to face Molly, "...is he your boyfriend Molly?"

"No," Molly quickly responded as she also turned red in embarrassment, "where did you get that idea?"

"He shrugged, "I don't know. You two seem like you could be, plus you're both holding hands."

They both look down to see that they indeed were holding hands. Turning even more red they let go of each other, "Do you know when Leef will be back?"

"Not until the morning...why?"

Molly lowered her head and whispered into his ear, or at least where his ear would be if he was completely humanoid, "I need you to keep a secret for me."

"What secret?"

"Squil needs to stay here for the night and Leef can't know he was here. Can you do that for me?"

"What do I get out of it?"

She pulled away from him to look him straight in the face, "What do you mean what do you get out of it?"

"I figured if you are going to entrust me with secrets like this on a regular basis then I ought to get something out of it."

Molly frowned at him, "Urchio...that is totally diabolical."

"What's 'diabolical' mean?"

"Never mind," Molly said as she rolled her eyes at him, "okay fine, what do you want for your silence?"

"I want you to play with me at least an hour for a week."

Molly's eyes widened slightly at his request, "you've been planning this for a while, haven't you?"

"Yep," he answered as he grinned, showing half formed fangs.

"Alright, you've got a deal," she held out her hand and he shook it just as hard as he had with Squil's. With a big smile on his face he changed back into a squid and squid jumped up the stairs and out of sight. As soon as he was gone Molly sighed, "I'm going to regret this later, aren't I?"

"Possibly," Squil said as he patted her on the shoulder, "but at least we know Inka's sister isn't going to find out I was here."

"Yeah," she replied back as she realized how tired she was, "come on I'll show you where the bedrooms are," taking Tha bag she still had slung over her shoulder she walked up the stairs with Squil following closely behind her.

"This is Inka's bedroom and the next room down from it is my room with Urchio's bedroom across from it," she indicated between yawns, "you should probably take Inka's room."

"What? No way if she found out I slept in her bed she'd freak!" he held his hands up as he backed away from the mentioned room, "Give me some blankets and I'll sleep on the floor in your room."

"But Squil...I don't even really know you that well. How do I know you won't..." she didn't dare look at him as she spoke.

"Molly," he lifted up her chin so that she was looking directly into his sapphire blue eyes, "I promise that I won't do anything."

"Promise?"

"Cross my hearts and hope I never get splatted," he responded as he crossed himself three times in three slightly different places on his chest.

Walking over to the cot in her room she pulled several blankets off of it and handed them to him. After laying several on the floor for him to lay down on he pulled a thicker blanket over himself before pulling his pilot goggles off his head and set them next to his head, "thanks Molly," he mumbled as he started to pass out.

"Your welcome Squil," she replied back as she crawled into the cot and pulled off her own goggles and set them on a wooden nightstand, "it was the least I could do..." she never finished her sentence since she had fallen asleep as well.

Neither of them heard the sound of something cracking coming from the bag Molly had placed in the closet.


	20. Parents For a Day

_Author's notes: Nothing really much to say personally but I am still wondering about if you guys would be interested in seeing my reactions to reviews as well as questions. Leave your answer to this in the comments below as well as your usual reviews and questions._

 _Only one question was left for me this time I'm afraid..._

 _ **From Guest:**_ _That little thing that the octoling was holding was an egg, right? (I hope that the octoling becomes an ally since the inklings may have saved her unborn child's life)_

 _ **Author:**_ _Maybe...you'll soon see, although I'm not sure I would consider something as big as a decent sized piece of fruit as little. (By the way for future reference I do spell check your questions and reviews if I'm going to post them with the chapter. If I can't figure out what you were trying to say they'll probably won't be put up with the chapter so as to not insult the reviewer.)_

 _As usual enjoy._

 **Chapter 20: Parents For a Day**

Sighing softly Molly stretched in pleasure as she started to wake up. A smile played upon her face as she realized the dream hadn't returned to her in the night, "At least I didn't have to see that strange metal thing..." leaning back on the pillow she debated going back to sleep for a few more minutes.

That is until she heard a soft cooing sound.

Looking down at the bed sheets she quickly saw that a lot of it was purple streaked and by some minor miracle she had curled in such a way that none of her skin was touching it. Looking down on the floor she spotted a slime trail of the same color leading away from the closet all the way to the bed.

The cooing sound coming to her ears again brought her gaze down to a small lump under the sheets next to her in the bed. The lump was slowing moving, like it was breathing.

Swallowing nervously she pulled the sheets up to reveal a small maroon colored octopus with bright green eyes staring back up at her.

"Ack!" backing away from it Molly accidentally fell of the bed and right on top of Squil.

"What the...? Molly!" Squil yelped as he pushed her off him, "what was that for?!"

"I'm sorry Squil but there's something in the bed," she explained as she climbed off his makeshift bed.

"What on Terra could possibly be in your bed?!" he growled as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

As if on cue the small octopus slid off the bed and plopped into Squil's lap with a happy gurgle. It immediately started to wrap its tentacles around one of his arms as it looked up at him with the same emerald colored eyes that had spook Molly before.

Trying to free his arm from its embrace Squil looked over at Molly, "What did you do with that egg Molly?"

"Egg? What egg?"

He rolled his eyes at her, "The purple sphere you grabbed from the Octoling. It was an Octarian egg and I'm asking you what did you do with it?"

"Oh..." glancing towards the closet the two of them could see the trail of Octarian ink slime that led from it. Getting up from the floor she walked over to it and pushed it open all the way.

Laying on the floor the satchel she had used the day before was covered in purple slime while the remains of the egg laid in and around the bag. Clearly what had happened was the Octarian had hatched in the bag and had escaped out of it and eventually out of the closet to end up in the bed with her, "Well I think it's safe to say I'm never using that bag again."

"Who cares about the bag Molly, we've got a big problem," Squil exclaimed as he continued to fight with the baby Octopus who kept rewrapping its tentacles around his arm almost as soon as he had pulled them off. After about another minute of this he gave up, "a baby Octoling hatched in your bedroom in the middle of Inkopolis and we have no idea what to do with it."

"Octoling? How do you know it's an Octoling?" Molly asked him.

"Because Octolings are the only ones who hatch in a purely octopus form just like ," he explained as he held out his Octoling wrapped arm towards her in emphasis, "I'm pretty sure it's a girl."

"Aww, she likes you Squil," Molly gushed as she walked back over to him, "I can't believe that purple sphere I found the Octoling with was this little cutie."

"Hey, you're starting to sound a little like Callie."

"Well she is cute," as soon as she was next to him it unwrapped some of its tentacles and reached over towards Molly. Holding out her arms it immediately went for her and curled up in her folded arms with a content squeal before passing out, "are baby Inklings as adorable as this?"

"Well Inklings do lay eggs just like Octarians but we do have our differences."

"Like what?" she asked as she gently rocked the Octoling in her arms.

"Well first off all Inkling eggs are not all one color like how all Octarian eggs are purple. The color of the egg is determined by the color of ink of the parents. For example if we were to have an egg together it would have a mixture of blue and orange on it and if you were to lay two or more eggs most likely they wouldn't have the exact same color pattern on each."

"How often does a female Inkling lay more than one egg?"

"Laying two eggs in the same clutch isn't very common and a female laying three is extremely rare. Also the percentage of color on the egg often can accurately determine the color the Inkling will be but when an Inkling hatches they are black for at least a day until they get their color."

"So how does the percentage thing work?"

"Well in theory if it is sixty percent or more of one color than it will usually be that color."

"Okay that makes sense but what if it's half and half?"

"Then it will either be a combination of the two colors or random, which is where the different color genes you have will seriously come into play."

"Squil, how come you know so much about baby Inklings? Do you have any younger siblings?"

"No, I'm the only kid my parents had. My mom is a professional Midwife for the hospital. I get subjected to baby stuff all the time from her."

"Hmm..." she fell silent as she gazed into Squil's eyes, beautiful sapphire blue that nearly looked midnight blue in comparison to his pale skin tone depending upon on the light. The tips of his tentacles were also midnight blue except for his spots which varied between almost black to medium blue...

Molly shook her head as a bright blush crossed her face. Why she had such thoughts in her head was beyond her since she wasn't interested in him.

At least she thought she wasn't.

The Octoling suddenly wailing brought her back to the present. Its ear splitting shriek making the two of them wince.

"What's wrong little one?" Molly asked as she tried rocking it back to sleep, only to have it become even more restless, "Why are you crying?"

"She might be hungry Molly," Squil replied as he covered his ears with his hands, "I'll be right back."

"What? You're leaving me with her?" Molly partially started to panic as she tried to calm the Octoling down.

After about ten minutes Squil returned with a baby bottle in his hand, "Here give her this. It has normal sea cow milk in it but this should work for now," he then handed the bottle over to her.

Holding the bottle out to it Molly gasped in surprise as it lunged towards the bottle and wrapped its tentacles around the top of the bottle. Several seconds later she heard sucking sounds as the bottle started to empty.

"I told you she was hungry."

"I wasn't doubting you Squil, its just that...well...I've never taken care of a baby before."

"Never? Not even among the Landdwellers?"

She shook her head, "Lily never had any kids herself since she never married and none of the other adults trusted me enough to allow me anywhere near their kids."

"So...this is your first time ever holding a baby."

Holding the bottle more tilted upwards so that the baby Octoling could get to the last bit of the milk she nodded, "Yeah...this is my first time," a minute later the bottle was empty and she handed it back to Squil, "she seems happy now."

"She probably needs to be burped though, lightly tap on her back to get her to burp."

Molly did so and after several minutes a faint gurgling burp came from the baby Octoling, "excuse you," she told it as she giggled slightly, "aww, you are just too cute," Molly held out a finger to it and the Octoling grabbed it with the tip of a tentacle.

"Too bad when she gets older she'll probably become a vicious Inkling killer," Squil muttered as he leaned up against the edge of the doorway.

"Well maybe she won't."

"How so Molly? She's an Octoling."

"Yeah, but we rescued her from who knows what the female Octoling was running away from. Maybe she'll be eternally grateful and won't kill Inklings."

"That's a pretty big maybe Molly but I guess you could be right," stepping away from the door he walked over to them and gently rubbed the top of the baby Octoling's head, causing it to squeak once before settling back down in Molly's arms for a nap, "either way she can't stay here. The wrong person finds her here in Inkopolis and they might try to kill her."

"Then what should we do?"

"We should probably get her back to her mother. The tricky part would be how since if we walk out in the plaza tons of people will see, so getting to the entrance for Octo Valley during the day will be impossible."

"Then we'll wait for tonight when everyone is asleep. Until then we'll just have to keep little Tilly happy."

"Tilly?"

"Yeah, it's short for Octilly since the Octolings seem to always put the term 'Oct' in front of their name. Like that male Octoling Octarnick for example; I heard some female Octolings refer to him as 'Nicky'."

"When did you hear this?"

"That first mission several weeks ago. I was hiding so they never saw me and they were talking about him."

"Okay...but why 'Tilly'?"

"Tilly sort of sounds like Lily to me," Molly answered him before suddenly becoming very quiet.

Patting her on the shoulder he tried to bring her spirits back up, "Alright...we'll wait till nightfall and we'll try to find her mother. Until then we'll take care of Tilly right here."

"Thanks Squil..." she said as a smile krept onto her lips again, "Let's hope she won't be too difficult to keep hidden here."

"She only just hatched Molly and I know tons of stuff about babies," he responded with a look of confidence, "What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

"Hey Molly have you any idea what happened to the last of the Sea Cow milk?" Leef asked as she rifled through the fridge in search of it.

Molly froze, mid-bite of some toast with salmon roe jelly. Swallowing nervously she answered, "I haven't seen it recently," technically she wasn't lying since it had been several hours ago that they had fed the last of it to Tilly. Even though she had only hatched less than a day ago she seriously had an appetite.

"Well that's weird since I only picked up a carton yesterday, " giving up she closed the door with a sigh, "I guess that means I'll need to pick up more before I can make a batch of sea salt Cookies. I'm sure you'll be fine here alone while I'm gone."

"Yeah, I'll be fine Leef," Molly insisted as she finally dared to eat some more of her toast.

"Alright, I better go find my purse," she walked out of the dining room.

Less then a minute later Squil walked down the stairs with a worried look on his face, "Where's Leef?"

"She went to go get her purse so she can go get some more sea cow milk," she hissed as she darted a look in the direction Leef had disappeared to, "but why are you down here? You're supposed to be watching Tilly."

"She's gone!" he hissed back as he rushed over to her, "I had to use the restroom and she was sleeping so I figured I could go real quick, but when I came back she was gone."

"You have to find her."

"Me! But it wasn't it your idea to keep her upstairs?"

"But you were the one who was watching her."

"I had to pee!"

"Alright Molly I'll probably be gone a few hours bu-" Leef started to say as she walked back into the dining room with a turquoise purse in hand until she saw the two of them hovering over the table, "I'm sorry but who are you?"

"I'm Squil Aquatica Miss Krakowski," Squil explained as he took a step back.

"Aquatica huh? You're not related to Teron and Kern Aquatica are you?"

"They are my parents Miss Krakowski."

"I see...so why are you here?"

"I came to hang out with Molly and Inka."

"Funny, I don't recall hearing the door."

"I saw him coming up towards the door so I just let him in," Molly quickly inserted in as she watched Squil squirming under Leef's gaze and questioning.

"I see," she replied, never taking her eyes off of Squil.

A sharp cry suddenly then rang through the air, causing the three of them to jump, "What was that?" Leef asked as she looked around the room for the source.

"It was me Leef," Molly quickly answered, her face turning red.

Leef stared at her, "You made that sound Molly?"

"Um, yeah," she then tried to imitate the sound but her attempt was weak and didn't compare to the sound from before, "see?"

The sudden feeling of something slimy wrapping around her ankle nearly caused Molly to scream before it dawned on her what it was. Slipping closer to the table she calmly sat down in one of the seats and signaled for Squil to join her at the table in the seat next to hers, "Squil is my captain for Turf War and we were going to discuss strategies for different area types," as she explained this she subtly indicated underneath the table to Squil where Tilly had grabbed her ankle, "that's why Squil is here...right Squil?"

"Um...yeah. Excuse me Miss Krakowski," reaching down like he was trying to fix his shoelaces he went to work freeing Molly from Tilly's grasp.

"So...you two are planning Turf War strategies?" Leef said as she looked between Molly and Squil, who was still hunched under the table fighting with the baby Octoling.

"Yeah, I accidentally forgot to tell you and Inka that he was coming over but Inka, I'm sure, will be here shortly," as she continued to speak the Octoling started to tickle the bottom part of her feet. Fighting the urge to laugh Molly simply smiled up at Leef, "relax Leef, we'll be fine."

"Alright...I'll see you later today Molly. Goodbye Squil Aquatica," she nodded at him as he came back out from under the table before walking out of the room and out the front door.

Rushing over to the front window Molly watched as Leef walked down the alley until she was out of sight. When she had returned from watching out the window Squil had already pulled Tilly out from under the table and now had her on his lap, "That was too close Molly."

"I know," returning back to her seat she rubbed the top of Tilly's head, making her squeak happily, "who knew something so small could be so much trouble."

"We certainly didn't, that's for sure," he simply looked down at her with a slight hint of a frown. When she placed one of her tentacles on the side of his face however he couldn't stop himself from allowing a smile to come onto his face, "but she certainly knows how to make a person's day a little brighter."

Gurgling loudly Tilly's form suddenly started to change. The transformation only made as far as to make four of her eight limbs take on the vague shape of arms and legs while the other four remained tentacles before she swiftly reverted back to her purely octopus form with a frustrated sounding squeak.

"Wow, not even a day old and already she's trying to turn humanoid," pulling her off Squil's lap Molly carried her up the stairs, "come on Tilly, let's take you back upstairs."

* * *

"I can't believe how hyper she is," Squil groaned as he flopped down onto the bed facedown, "I thought she would never pass out."

"Well thankfully she did," looking behind her Molly watched as the baby Octoling slept in a nest made out of blankets in Inka's reading chair. Her small form inflating and deflating as she breathed, "we might have an hour or two to try to get some sleep ourselves before we take her back if we take turns."

"Alright, you go first Molly, I'll keep watch."

"You sure Squil? I can keep an eye on her while you sleep."

"No I'm okay," he insisted as he pulled his face out of the bedsheets, "guys can survive on a lot less than girls can."

"Are you saying that just because I'm a girl I'm not as tough as you?"

"Yes, I mean no, I mean...oh stuff it! Fine, if you want to take the first watch than be my guest. I'm going to get some sleep," with a frustrated growl he stomped out of the room and into the room next door.

Giggling at his fit she kneeled down next to Tilly and gently took hold of one of her tentacles, "Don't worry Octilly, we'll get you back to your real mother, no matter what," she paused as she continued to stare at the tiny form sleeping before her, "after all...no one should live their life never knowing who their parents were."


	21. Operation Octoling Restoration

_Author's notes: This chapter took longer then I previously planned but here it is...hope you like it._

 _Also shout out to Darkstar248 who reminded me of a scene that I had originally taken out of an earlier chapter. I'm happy to say that scene found its use after all._

 _Don't forget to review and ask any questions you have for me. I love reading all of the feedback so I can constantly improve my writing skills._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 21: Operation Octoling Restoration**

"Something tells me that this isn't going to work."

"Why?" Molly asked as she turned to face Squil. He was currently holding Octilly, but she had become restless from being held so long on the way to the plaza.

"Because we're trying to sneak around Inkopolis with a baby Octoling with the faint hope that we can get her back to her mother as well hoping we don't get caught in the process," by this point Tilly had started to climb out of his arms and was making a beeline for his head to suck on one of his tentacles with her beak. As cute as the action was due to how sensitive an Inkling's tentacles are the first time she had done it to him after he had passed out during one of his shifts of watching her he had screamed at the top of his lungs and caused one of the neighbors to come over and see what the ruckus was about.

It was because of this incident that night had fallen nearly an hour before they could try to sneak out of the house.

"We have to try."

"Easier said than done Molly," Squil responded as he tried to keep Tilly as far from his tentacles as possible. Currently he was slowing losing the fight as she slowly creeped from his shoulder onto his head.

Walking over to him she yanked Tilly off of him and wrapped her up in her arms, "Squil, I never knew my parents and for all I know I never will. This is why I need to do this, I have to try to get her back to her mother so that she can live out a normal life with her own kind."

"Unlike you?"

She frowned at him, "If you don't want to help then I'll do it myself."

"No way am I letting you go by yourself Molly," he insisted as he shook his head in emphasis, "Agents have got to stick together."

"But Squil you're not an agent, I am."

He shrugged, "I might be someday. Now come on let's get to Octo Valley," he ran across the wide open expanse of the plaza and leaped down through the entrance to Octo Valley without missing a beat.

"Why do I have this feeling that he was showing off just now?" Molly muttered to herself before she followed him down with Tilly in tow.

When Molly saw that it still looked like daytime when the had entered into Octo Valley she instantly became puzzled, "Wha...?"

"Its not the real sky Molly," Squil explained as he looked around to see if anyone was there, "we are actually underground Molly. Originally this valley used to be the Octarian's until they were forced to find deeper places to hide from us Inklings. Since most Octarians never see the real sky their leader help created this artificial sky for them."

"Is their leader still around?"

"No, Marlin defeated him and for awhile he was entrapped here in the valley but after a few months he escaped and nobody has seen him since. Cuttlefish theorizes that he went back but so far as we can tell he isn't the leader anymore. But we also have no clue who the new leader is."

"Well we probably should get going before Cuttlefish finds out we're here," heading in the direction of the tea kettles she walked over to the one the two of them had traversed in the day before.

Only to find the top of it shut and sealed.

"What?! No!" placing Tilly on the ground she tried to pry open the top with her hands. After trying for several minutes she gave up and had to message the tips of her fingers, "why are the kettles shut?"

"Because they are sealed for your own protection as well as the whole city's protection," walking out from her hiding place behind the shack Callie glared at the two of them, her gold eyes glinting darkly, "I would have figured you would have been smart enough to know this Molly but apparently I was wrong."

"Callie! Ho-"

"How long have I been here watching you two? Well Squil I just happen to need to pick something up from my grandfather's shack and before I could leave you two showed up with...what is that?" her original anger was instantly toned down as she watched Molly pick the Octoling up from off the ground.

"This is Octilly or "Tilly" for short I accidentally took her egg back with me when me and Squil went to Inka's house. She hatched and I felt so bad for her I wanted to get her back to her mother and, and..." Molly trailed off as she watched Callie continue to stare at Tilly, "and please don't take her away Callie."

She looked back up at Molly, "Who said I was going to do that?"

"I uh...what?"

A smile formed on her lips, "you know you're lucky I'm a sucker for babies."

"So you're going to let us go and take her back?"

"Not by yourselves. I'll stay here and give you advice as to what to do if you get in trouble down there like if I was the Captain. Which means you two need to suit up."

"But Agent 1 I don't have an agent suit like Molly does," Squil pointed out.

"Well then you can use my old one...you still have my headset if I remember correctly after all."

He turned red at her statement, "I was going to give them back."

"It's not like I need it really...Agent 5."

"Wait, are you saying...?"

"Not officially you're not Squil...but you are going to be shortly."

"Booyah!" he cheered.

"Hey keep it down blue hot shot or you'll wake Gramps up!" Callie hissed as she darted a glance over to the shack to see if the Captain would come blazing out. Much to all three's relief he didn't, "Now I'll keep an eye on uh...Tilly while you go get changed."

* * *

"I still can't believe Callie didn't can us," Squil remarked as they traversed through the Octoling base, "maybe she's not as scary as Marlin described when she gets mad."

"I heard that Agent 5," Callie responded from their headsets and made Squil wince, "And as I've said before you're lucky I'm a sucker for babies. When this is all said and done let's all just agree to act like this never happened...deal?"

"Deal, but first we have to try to find the female Octoling that's Tilly's mother," checking to see if Tilly was fine inside the makeshift carriar on her back Molly gently rubbed the top of her small head.

"Yeah, but we are completely vulnerable since we don't have our ink weapons so even if we do find her mother she might still try to splat us into oblivion."

"She might...but if she sees that you have her newborn child she might spare you until you hand her over, after that well...let's just hope she'll take pity on you two."

"Thanks for the bode of confidence Callie," Squil muttered before being shushed by Molly. Pointing in the direction of some flickering light she and Squil crept towards it.

The light turned out to be a campfire in the middle of a small dry grass deprived area. Surrounding it were a dozen Octolings.

"Um...Callie, we might have a problem," Squil replied into the headset.

"What? Why? What happened?"

"We just found a team of Octolings camping out for the night and we're still pretty close to the entrance to this kettle."

"You think they're up to something Agent 5?"

"Who knows but there's at least twelve of them an-"

"Scratch that Squil," Molly whispered to him as another Octoling entered into the circle and sat down, "a thirteenth one just showed up and...uh oh."

"What? What's wrong?"

Ducking lower in their hiding spot Molly faintly growled, "it's him."

"Him? Him who?"

"Octarnick," she hissed as she narrowed at him, "He must be their leader and their elite Octoling."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he has seaweed wrapped up in that ponytail of his...did he have that before I wonder...?" unslinging the carrier she handed it to Squil and started to slink forward out of their hiding place.

Squil quickly grabbed her arm to stop her, "What are you doing?!"

"We need to know why they're here."

"But what if they see you?"

"They won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Do you trust me?"

He hesitated briefly before answering, "Yes."

"Then wish me luck," pulling her arm free from his grasp she darted out of hiding and behind a new hiding place before Squil could stop her. After getting behind some abandoned crates she was finally able to hear what they were saying.

"You know what I can't believe Octori?" one of the females next to Octarnick whispered to her partner on her other side with a slight snicker.

"What Octowa?" The other one responded as she also snickered.

"I still can't believe Octarnick became an elite when he can't even remember what happened to him three days ago...let alone three weeks ago."

Both of the girls as well as several others in the circle started to laugh while Octarnick continued to stare into the flames of the campfire like nothing had happened.

"Maybe the one who gave him his seaweed had memory problems too," one of the other female Octolings suggested which elicited an even greater reaction from the group.

"Well why don't we ask him ourselves," leaning over him the one named Octowa giggled once as she started to say, "hey Octarnick, was the one who..."

Quicker then a blink of an eye he suddenly had his hand around her throat and was starting to choke her as he pinned her up against the crate that Molly was hiding behind, "One more word out of you Towa and you'll wish I'd splatted you right here, right now. Is that clear?"

She stayed silent for a few moments before he slammed her head up against the crate again several times until finally she gurgled in response and he let her go. Gasping for air she crawled over to the opposite side of the circle as Octarnick brushed his hands off, "Anyone else got anything to say to me?"

The entire group was silent as he glowered at the all, "No? Good," with that he plopped back down onto the ground and brushed one strand of his seaweed off his shoulder so that both ends fell down his back like an extra pair of tentacles.

"Sir?" a slightly younger Octoling asked as she raised her gloved hand.

"What?" Octarnick barked, causing the Octoling to wince.

"I was talking to some of the other Octolings from my last team and they were telling me that you once went up against an Inkling agent all by yourself...is that true?"

He sighed, "Yes Octolia, a few weeks ago I did go up against an Inkling agent and if it weren't for the fact that the agent had a partner I would have taken them easily."

"Was it Agent 3?" another Octoling asked.

"No, she was called Agent 4."

"You know I heard that Agent 3 was captured shortly before Octarnick arrived and I even heard that he was captured by simple Octolings and not elites." One of the other Octolings whispered to the only one who had been silent the entire time. Her head resting in her hand as she stared blankly into space, "don't you think that's odd considering how many of us he has killed over the years?"

The one being spoken to said nothing and kept on sitting there like she hadn't been spoken to.

"Give it up Octarlinn, Octarly has been sulking all day and by the looks of it she won't be stopping anytime soon," the one called Octori cried out to Octarlinn.

"Well then I'm sure then Octarly would have no problem with doing the first watch for tonight," Octarnick stated as he stared in the direction of the mentioned Octoling.

Sighing softly she got up from her spot in the circle and taking an Octoshot in hand headed out of the light of the fire.

"You know what? I'm not really sure I like this new Octarly. Sure she's been a little moody these last several months but at least she would talk to me," Octarlinn said with a depressed tone as she watched her friend walk out of sight.

"It probably doesn't help that she lost her boyfriend Octatobias over a month ago," another Octoling pointed out.

"I'm sure she'll get over what ever it is that's bothering her...she has to," Octolia insisted as she smiled half-heartedly with her fangs half showing.

"Never mind her now Tolia," Octarnick said as he grabbed a long stick and started to draw in the dirt, "we need to come up with a game plan to get more of our troops up at the surface. If we can find a way into Octo Valley we can take out the agent's home base and nothing will stand in our way to taking over Inkopolis," a smile crept onto his face as he released a soft chuckle.

"Agent 4 you need to get out of there," Callie suddenly called through her headset.

"But what about-"

"If you or Agent 5 get caught it won't matter. Didn't their leader just send out a scout to check the area?"

"Shoot, you're right!" Scrambling backwards she headed back to where Squil was still hiding, who was simply staring off into nothing when she found him, "Squil? Are you alright?" she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Gah!" he quickly covered his mouth so that his scream wouldn't ring out, "darn it Molly you nearly gave one of my hearts a heart attack."

"Why only one?" she asked puzzled.

He rolled his eyes at her, "It was an expression Molly, anyway what were you able to find out?"

"Unfortunately not much other than the fact that by the sounds of it the Octarians are trying to find a way out of the kettles by going through Octo Valley."

"How do they plan on doing that?"

"I don't know, I had to leave before I could find out. Octarnick sent one of the other Octolings out on patrol. We need to get going or she might find us before we can find Tilly's mother."

"Alright," handing back the baby carrier the two of them headed away from the area where the group of Octolings were and farther into the Octarian base.

While walking down a narrow pathway they both suddenly heard a loud clicking sound that caused them both to freeze, "What was that?"

"I don't know Molly," Squil answered as he darted his gaze all around them, "Callie do you know of anything that makes a loud clicking sound that the Octarians use?"

"Nothing comes to mind."

"We maybe it was simply something settling or something," Molly said as she took a step forward.

Only to have both her and Squil suddenly get pulled up from their legs by a snare trap. Crying out in pain as their backs banged into each other they were both partially disoriented for several seconds as they finally came to a jerky stop upside down and several feet in the air.

"Something settling? Oh yeah, totally Molly," Squil stated sarcastically as he tried to gave her an upside frown, which was made difficult by the fact that the two of them were back to back in the trap.

"Callie!?"

"Oh yeah I forgot they had snare traps. Didn't think they still used those nowadays."

"Well apparently they do," Squil growled he tried to get away from Molly but instead caused the two of the to spin around once, "how on Terra do we get out of here Callie?"

"If you can find something sharp you could cut yourselves loose."

"Where are we going to find something like that Callie?"

"Well yelling at me is certainly not going to help you get free Agent 5."

"Wait Squil...where's Tilly?"

A squeak caused the two of them to look down and see Octilly looking up at them from the ground after having crawled out of the carrier, "Oh thank the squids above that we didn't squish her when we banged into each other."

"Um, Molly not to sound like I don't care or anything about Tilly but shouldn't we be worrying about the fact that we're sitting squids up here?"

"I would have to agree with your partner on this," a new voice stated as Octarly walked out of her hiding place with her Octoshot aimed at them, "not that it will really matter in the next minute or two."

"What? But we're unarmed! We couldn't hurt you even if we wanted to."

"Sounds like a bad move on your part," she said as she cocked the weapon in her hands, "Any last words Inklings?"

"Please no, we were just trying to get a baby back to its mother. That's all we were doing," Molly pleaded as tears started to stream down her face.

The Octoling slightly lowered her weapon in uncertainty, "Baby? What baby?"

"Tilly, you can come out now!" Molly called out as she tried to spot where the young Octoling had gone.

With a scared squeak she crawled out from behind some crates but froze when she saw the Octoling. Whimpering she tried to slither back into hiding.

Octarly looked equally frightened as she stared down at Tilly through her goggles, "Why on Terra do you have a baby Octoling?"

"We took her by accident when we darted her mother to get a sample of Octarian ink from her. We came back to see if we could find her again and give her baby back to her."

"You came back...weaponless...to return a child to her mother?" She had by this point completely lowered her weapon back down to her side.

"Yes," Molly nodded, "that's all we want to do and then we'll go home."

"Hmm...I wonder...?" placing her Octoshot onto the ground she held out a hand to Octilly who immediately shrank back in fear. She turned back to face the two hanging agents, "What did you call her?"

"The name we gave her was Octilly but she'll respond to Tilly as well."

"Tilly," she repeated the name several times like she trying to hear how it sounded spoken out loud. Turning back to the shivering baby Octoling she held out her hand again, "Tilly...come here," she cried out in a gentle voice, "come on Tilly...it's alright."

Slowly Tilly got closer to the offered hand until she was able to place several of her tentacles on the hand. After a solid minute had passed Tilly let out a happy squeak before being scooped up into the arms of Octarly who had allowed a bubble of laughter to roll up from her throat, "Oh my little Tilly," she then cooed as she gently rocked her from side to side, "I thought I had lost you forever."

"What? You're Tilly's mother?" Squil's eyes grew wide.

"Yes...I'm the Octoling you knock out and the egg you took was mine. It was actually my first..."

"But how do we know you're her mother? You Octolings all look a lot alike to me."

"You can disbelieve me all you want but if there's one thing we Octolings and Inklings share other then our hatred for each other then that's how strong the connection between a mother and her baby can be...even to a point where even if the baby has never met its mother it can still recognize the person who laid their egg."

"We really are sorry for taking your egg."

"Actually because of what you did you actually saved my baby, young Inkling."

"How so?"

"When you knocked me out with you dart I was running away from an Octarian patrol who had spotted me escaping with my egg."

"But you're a Octoling warrior, why would you run away?"

"Not everyone in our race likes this constant war with your race," she replied bitterly, "I have seen too many of my friends and family die right before my eyes. Tilly's father isn't even alive anymore since he was killed in an accident only a month ago. Male Octolings are so rare in our race after all..."

"So you wanted to protect what little family you had left?"

Octarly nodded,"Me and Octatobias, Tilly's father, kept her egg a secret for months but when Tobias was killed I knew sooner or later her existence would be discovered so I decided to escape and find somewhere to raise her away from the war and bloodshed. However as I was leaving a scout spotted me and started to chase me with his other officers. When I came to after the effects of your dart had worn off and I didn't have my egg anymore I feared the worst and that they had destroyed it," pulling her goggles off her face she threw them away from her as tears streamed down her face, "I thought I was alone but now I know that's not the case and I owe you my thanks for protecting Tilly."

"You're welcome ma'am," Squil said as he did an upside down salut, "The New Squidbeak Splatoon was happy to help but I don't suppose you could..." he pointed at himself and Molly before pointing down at the ground with a nervous chuckle.

"Oh! Yes I think I can help with that," holding Tilly in one arm she walked over to where the trap's line was attached to a pulley system. Using a short knife from her short's pocket she cut through the line.

As suddenly as they had been yanked up into the air Molly and Squil crashed back down to the ground in a heap with loud groans of pain. After several minutes they got up from the floor and brushed themselves off, "Thank you uh...?" Molly hesitated since she didn't want the Octoling to know that she was spying on the Octoling group.

"Call me Tarly...that's what Tobias always called me."

"Thank you Tarly. Will we perhaps see you again?"

"Most likely not. I'm going to take Tilly far away from this place so that she can live the life that I had always wished I'd had for myself, but again I thank you Inkling."

"You can call me Agent 4 Tarly, and this is my partner Agent 5."

"Agent 4? Than you must have known Agent 3 very well."

"I'm afraid I haven't. He was kidnapped by your race before I joined."

"Really? Huh...that's interesting."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well I admit I've only seen him once but you look like you could be his cousin or something."

Fear started to grip Molly's heart as she hesitated before asking her next question, "Why do you think we might be related?"

"Because you are both orange Inklings and you two are the only orange Inklings I have ever seen in my life," she answered.

The ground almost seemed to fall out from underneath Molly as she almost fell backwards before Squil caught her, "Molly! Are you alright?" he whispered into her ear.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she answered him shakily. Pushing herself from him she stood up on her own but her nerves were clearly a mess. As she turned to face Squil a sharp hiss escaped his mouth, "What?"

"Y-your eyes Molly, they're...glowing."

"What?!" looking at the shiny surface of a crate she gasp at what she saw.

Her eyes were still orange but it just like Squil had said they were glowing faintly like they had dim lights behind them.

 _Just like how that male Inkling's tentacles were glowing yellow,_ Molly thought as she continued to stare at them in her reflection. The pain in her chest she got usually when she was about to change suddenly flared up making her groan, "Squil...help me..."

"Um, right," turning towards the Octoling and her baby he gave them an apologetic look, "sorry we have to cut this goodbye short but Agent 4 is not feeling well and I have to get her out of here."

"I understand, good luck Agent 5 and Agent 4. I hope I find more Inklings like you two in our travels," holding young Tilly close to her chest she walked off into the gloom without looking back once.

"Well that certainly wasn't what I was expecting to happen," Callie commented through their headsets.

"I think we have bigger problems to deal with Callie," Molly moaned as she almost became doubled over in pain, "I about to change in the middle of an Octarian base and we'll never make it back to Octo Valley in time."

"Molly, you need to calm down. When you're stressed you seem more likely to change so if you calm down you might be able to prevent the change."

"Calm myself with what Callie?" the pain was already spreading out to the rest of her body. She only had a few seconds before she would become a Landdweller again.

"Squil! Do something! We can't have her change in there!" Callie nearly screamed as fear entered into her voice.

Quickly grabbing hold of Molly he brought her close to his face and locked eyes with her for a second before kissing her full on the lips.

Shock instantly replaced the fear she had and the pain in her chest disappeared just as quickly as it had come as well. They continued to kiss for several more seconds before releasing each other and both taking a step back, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that without asking you and I-I..." Squil started to say as he turned a bright red.

She placed a hand on his mouth to silence him, "No Squil...it was okay...and I really don't mind...in fact..." an equally as red blush crossed over her face as she removed her hand from his mouth to kiss him back. This time the kiss lasted far longer than the first one had.

A faint cough from Callie finally forced them to pull away from each other again, "Don't worry Callie we're on our way back."

"Good, this was seriously starting to get incredibly awkward...or at least in my position it was."

Laughing at Callie's comment the two of them headed back the way they had come, hands clasped together as they walked.

* * *

"Hey where have you two been? We haven't seen you guys since before the last mission two days ago."

"We got a little tied up with something," Molly insisted as she continued to hold Squil's hand underneath the table. Neither of them wanting the others to find out about their budding relationship.

"Um...okay," Inka responded slightly confused by Molly's answer, "Well are you and Squil going to come with us to hear what the results were from the samples we collected versus the stuff that Whark and Neel expelled from themselves?"

"The results are done already?" she accidentally yanked Squil's arm causing him to nearly fall under the table they were sitting at. Trying to hide her blush she continued, "we'll be there in a minute."

"Okay..." getting even more weirded out Inka walked away from them, "I'll tell them you're coming."

Popping up from the grate they both found the others standing around, "we weren't that long in getting here were we?"

"No Molly, you two are just in time," Callie explained as they joined them in the circle, "alright so my friend was able to find a difference between the samples from Whark and Neel and the samples from regular Octolings."

"Alright, well what did he find?"

"Patience is a virtue Ploosh," Callie stated flatly at him, "I don't have to sit on you again do I?"

A look of fear came over him as he rapidly shook his head, "No, I'm good!"

"Good, now my friend compared the genetic the double base pairs and he noticed that over a dozen of them don't match normal Octoling or even normal Octarian genetic code patterns for that matter."

"Wait...what do you mean they don't match normal genetic code patterns for Octarians? Does it match a different species genetic code patterns?" Inka asked.

"As a matter of fact it does Inka...ours."

"What?"

"The double pairings that aren't normal for an Octarian are perfectly normal for our race."

"So...are we dealing with a hybrid Octoling/Inkling or something?"

"We're not sure but what is probably the strangest part of it was the fact that the genes that code for the Octoling's color of ink wasn't the standard coding for Octarian's purple colored ink."

"Then what color did it code for?" Molly asked.

Callie swallowed nervously before she answered her, "Most of the double pairings that code for the ink color coded for the color orange Molly, whoever produced the ink that was ingested by those two Inklings has the coding for orange ink as well as the standard Octarian ink."


	22. Recurring Nightmares and a Gift

_Author's notes: Took a lot of work to get this chapter up for you guys but hey look...I did it._

 _I would like to take time to also give a special thanks to a certain Splatoon artist named TamarinFrog who gave me the idea for one of the scenes in this chapter, (I'm sure some of you will figure what scene I'm talking about very quickly...and probably tell her knowing my luck.)_

 _As usual don't forget to review and ask any questions you have for me._

 **Chapter 22: Recurring Nightmares and a Gift**

Darkness swam in front of Molly's vision as she look around herself, "O _h no...don't tell me..._ " she looked down at herself and found her wearing her hero suit and shoes, which had been altered partially over the last year to fit her slightly taller height. Reaching up over her head she felt her goggles on her head.

"C _rud...I'm back here again. Why am I here again?_ " she let out a silent scream of frustration, "W _hy couldn't it have been a one time thing like most dreams?_ "

" _You're not the only one that is thinking this,_ " a new voice called out, in Calamarese instead of English.

Turning around she found herself face to face with the yellow male Inkling, his blue eyes staring at her with an almost tired expression. He was wearing the same lab coat and pilot goggles like before, " _You really have no idea how many times I've been here._ "

" _I'm really sorry, I do wish I knew why we are both back here so that this will stop happening._ "

His eyes suddenly widened, " _Wait...you can understand me?_ "

" _I don't quite have the vocal conjugation down yet so that I can speak it but I do know what you're saying now since I've been learning Calamarese for little less then a year._ "

" _Its been nearly a year since you last saw me?_ "

" _Yes,_ " she answered him, somewhat hesitantly.

He swore under his breath before speaking to her again, " _That means time isn't moving at the same rate for the two of us._ "

" _How? You look the same age as when I last saw you._ "

" _Yeah...but you're clearly older than last I saw you._ "

Realization dawned on her, " _I'm getting older faster than you are._ "

" _It would appear so._ "

" _But why...it doesn't make sense._ "

" _Maybe not yet but something tells me there's a reason we keep seeing each other._ "

" _Do you think we'll see each other again?_ "

" _I think that's very likely but how old we'll be when next we see each other I believe is up for debate,_ " a distant sound caused him to look off in the dark, his tentacled hair suddenly glowing faintly, " _I don't think we have long before we part ways again though._ "

Molly looked out in the same direction that he was a small amount of fear starting to form in her chest, " _What was that?_ "

" _The Peace Walker is what it's called but its actual purpose is still beyond me,_ " he turned back to face her, " _before it comes I want to know...who are you?_ "

" _I'm Molly,_ " she answered holding back at the last second her human last name. Technically it wasn't her real last name after all, somewhere there was a family that held her real last name...if she had any family left that is.

" _My name is Ty. It's nice to finally have a name to put with your face,_ " he held out his hand for her to shake it.

She reached a hand up to it only to freeze when she saw something huge behind him. It was the metal thing from before.

" _What's wrong Molly?_ " he asked as he quickly jerked his hand back in fear. It didn't take much for Molly to guess that her eyes must have started to glow bright orange. His own tentacled hair started to glow brighter.

" _Behind you!_ " she cried out.

Turning he barely had time to see it before it stomped down hard on the ground near them as cracks spread out across the floor which all faintly glowed. Whether the machine itself was the cause of the cracks or something else was beyond Molly, " _Ty?_ "

" _Sorry Molly...looks like our time is up here,_ " he gave her a sad look, " _hopefully it won't be too long before we see each other again,_ " he simply stood there as the machine looked like it was about to go after him.

" _No wait!_ " she tried to reach for him only to get blinded by one of the cracks suddenly becoming far brighter than the others. Covering her eyes with her arms she waited for the glaring light to die down.

Only to find herself in her bed in her room.

"What?" sitting up she rubbed her face with her hands as a slight shiver went down her back, "I've now have had two dreams with that male Inkling and the machine...he called it a-a Peace Walker. What on Terra is a Peace Walker and why does it keep coming at us?"

Nothing was adding up in her mind. Shaking her head she climbed out of bed and went to get dressed so that she could go meet up with Squil and the others. With it being her 15th birthday he had told her he had something special planned for the two of them after meeting up with the other agents for their usual weekly meeting. With Squil being Agent 5 ever since that mission with the baby Octoling, and recently Ploosh becoming Agent 6 and Inka Agent 7 Cuttlefish had decided they needed to have these weekly meetings so they could plan out their next missions.

Just thinking about it had made her almost completely forget about the dream.

* * *

"Good morning Agent 4," Ploosh greeted as he shoved a crab cake into his mouth.

"Morning Agent 6," Molly returned as she sat down at the foldout table that had been set out in front of the shack, "where's Agents 1, 5 and 7?"

"They'll be here shortly Bucko," Cuttlefish said as he placed another platter full of crab cakes on the table, "while you wait you better grab some of my crab cakes before Agent 6 eats them all."

"It's not my fault I've had a growth spurt," Ploosh replied between bites of food. Over the last month he had become several inches taller than Molly and his chubby youthful face was starting to tone down into a young man's face. It probably wouldn't be long before girls would find him a lot more attractive.

Not that Molly cared anymore. She already had found a boyfriend and she didn't think she would be swapping anytime soon.

After having finished a third crab cake a familiar sound of someone passing through the grate made Molly turn and see Inka, Squil and Callie walking over from the grate, "Squil!" she smiled at him as he sat down next to her, "What took you so long?"

"My mom," he groaned, it was then that she noticed he was wearing a white shirt and tie and a nice pair of black shoes, which seemed a little odd combined with his pilot goggles on his head, "She found out that I was doing something with you later so she stopped me as I was walking out the door and said, and I quote; 'You need to dress like a proper gentleman when you take a girl out on a date'," he placed his face in his hands, "I look ridiculous."

"I think you look just fine Squil," Molly said as she rubbed the back of his neck, causing him to purr deeply in his chest. She had discovered his Soulspot half a year into them officially deciding to go out. She had been trying to console him after a bitter defeat with another Splatoon team when she had started to rub the back of his neck and he had begun to purr up a storm.

"I would have to agree with Molly on this one..." Inka said as she fought off Ploosh who currently was trying to steal a crab cake from off her plate, "...although is seems a little odd compared to what Molly is wearing."

Molly looked down at her blue and gray layered T-shirt and white shoes and immediately started to blush, "I suppose she has a point."

"Don't listen to her Molly, I think you look nice no matter what your wearing," grabbing hold of her hands he planted a kiss on them, making her blush even more.

"Guys, seriously? Do you have to broadcast you affection for each other in front of us?" Ploosh asked annoyed, "we don't need to be reminded of your relationship all the time."

"Ploosh, you're just jealous that you don't have a girlfriend," Inka stated to him.

He snorted in response, "Trust me Inka...I'm so not jealous."

"Sure you aren't," she rolled her eyes at him.

"Well can we just get this meeting over with so I can leave."

"What's the matter? Can't handle the romance in the air?"

"No," it was then Ploosh's turn to roll his eyes, "I'm suppose to meet up with my cousin to hang out with him today. Knowing my luck he's probably already waiting for me in the plaza."

"How is Kelp?" Molly asked.

Ploosh's mood instantly turned darker, "Well if you didn't avoid him like he was a disease than you might know for yourself," Ploosh replied bitterly.

Gilt caused a lump to form in her throat, the topic of Kelp was often a sensitive one ever since he had found out that she was dating Squil, "T-things happened Ploosh,"

"He doesn't care and frankly I'm not sure I do either, I'm only watching out for family," pushing his seat back he got up from the table, "now unless we are going to have an actual meeting I'm out of here."

"Well actually there really isn't anything planned for this upcoming week due to the fact that its Splatfest this next weekend and I'll be neck deep in planning again," Callie sighed.

"Aren't you always neck deep in the planning process for Splatfest?" Inka asked.

"Uh..."

"So we can go?"

"Well I suppose so bu-"

"Thank you," getting up from the table Ploosh rushed over to the sewer grate and dived into it.

"Um...okay," turning back to the others Callie shook off her stunned expression, "what's the rest of your guy's plans?"

"I've got baby sitting duty so I'm going to be home all day," Inka said flatly, "I should probably get going myself on that, see you later," with that she got up as well and left.

"What about you Molly?"

"Well to be perfectly honest I have no idea what we're doing," Molly explained as a faint blush crossed her cheeks, "Squil's been keeping it a secret for over a week now."

Callie giggled for second before she could stop herself, but even after she did a wide grin was still plain on her face, "I wish you luck on your date then," she turned and walked over the Cuttlefish.

"It's not a date..." Molly cried out at Callie until she notice a similar smile on Squil's face, "...is it?"

"Well it depends on how you look at it."

"Squil..."

"Relax Molly it's not like I'm going take you to some fancy dinner or something."

"Does Callie know where you're taking me?"

"Course she does...she helped me plan it out."

"Great...betrayed by my best friend."

"Molly please don't turn the offer down before I've even presented it. You trust me...don't you?"

She sighed, "I trust Squil."

"Good, I hope you're not too full because food is going to be involved," he held up a plastic bag that was slightly bulging.

"No, I'm good. Crab cakes aren't really my thing anyway."

"Well even if you were the walk itself to where we're going will probably make you work up an appetite."

* * *

"Squil, where are we?" Molly groaned. Ten minutes ago Squil had stopped her to wrap a bandana around her eyes so that she couldn't see where they were going and was currently being led by her arms by him, "Are we even there yet?"

"Almost, just a little farther," after another dozen steps he stopped her, "okay you can look now."

"Finally," yanking the bandana off her head she sighed in relief at being able to see again.

That is until she saw where they were.

"P-Port Mackerel? You brought me to Port Mackerel? Why on Terra did you bring me here?"

"Callie suggested it," he said simply as he started to climb up onto one of the storage crates, "said it would probably appeal to your love of the simplistic."

"Callie's definition of simplistic and mine is clearly different," she grumbled as she followed him up, "lunch at a small café would have been more up my alley."

"Do you want to leave?"

"No, no...we're here already we might as well stay."

"Great, hope you're hungry," opening up the bag he handed her a cardboard box that miraculously was still steaming, "I got your favorite; shrimp dumplings and rice."

"Oh my gosh Squil! You're awesome!" She wrapped her arms and tentacles around him for a few seconds before snagging the food from him. Using some chopsticks she picked up a shrimp and dropped it into her mouth, "Mmm...Squil this tastes amazing. When did you pick it up?"

"After getting harassed by my mom about my choice of clothing I rushed over to get my order from Mr. Carpe's Cuisine which I had ordered in advance so that it would be ready when I got there," he explained between bites of his own food.

"Well this actually is a pretty nice present Squil...thank you!" they continued to eat in silence. Afterwards leaning back up against another grate Squil wrapped his arms around Molly's shoulders as they stared at the sun as it slowly rose higher into the sky.

A sudden sound of something metal opening however quickly grabbed their attention.

Looking over at a spawn point the two of them stared in horror as a blue colored team rose up from the spawn point, "Squil...?"

"But Callie said they wouldn't be using Port Mackerel until this afternoon!"

"Apparently she was wrong, we've got to get out of here be-" the whistle signaling the start of the match drowned out whatever she had been saying as the blue team rushed forward off their spawn point.

"Go!" Sliding down from the grate Molly ran down one of the corridors with Squil right behind her as they tried to avoid areas that were already covered with ink. Turning a corner however brought her face to face with a boy Inkling with a roller.

"Hello," he said as he raised his roller up to splash her.

"Wait no! We're not part of the game!" Squil cried out as he stood in front of Molly to protect her from the roller's ink.

"Wha...?" he never got the chance to say anything farther due to the fact that he was then sniped by someone on the other team with a charger weapon, causing him to explode in a puddle of orange colored ink.

Taking advantage of the temporary lull of activity near them they climbed over a fence and didn't stop running until Port Mackerel was well out of sight. Gasping for air Squil quickly tried to apologize, "I'm sorry Molly, I really didn't know Port Mackerel was going to be in the rotation at this time."

"It's okay Squil, " Molly insisted as she finally caught her breath, "aside from the fact that we had to run for our lives just now to prevent ourselves from getting splatted it was really a sweet idea."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I really do thank you Squil for the gift," she planted a quick kiss on his lips, "Maybe we can try something like this again."

"Sure, I mean that is if you're still interested later."

"Just as long as you don't pick a potentially active Turf War stage to have it at next time."

The two of them laughed as they headed back to Inkopolis. Chatting most of the way there they almost didn't realize they were back until they walked out of an alley into the plaza, "we should go check up with Callie, she's probably worried sick for us," nodding in agreement they jump down into the grate to enter Octo Valley.

* * *

"Oh the great Squids above us I feared the worst when I found they had changed the rotation for this morning!" Callie said very quickly as she hugged the two of them tightly.

"It's okay Callie, we didn't get hurt and we were able get out of there pretty quick," Squil insisted as he struggled to free himself from Callie's embrace, "um, say Callie could you please...?"

Finally taking the hint of his discomfort she let him and Molly go, "Sorry."

"It's okay Callie you were only-"

"Somebody help me!"

Turning around the three of them stood in shock as Ploosh limped over to them. His shirt was torn in several places and black and purple bruises cover his arms, legs and face, except for where a deep long cut was still bleeding on his left cheek.

"Ploosh!" rushing over to him Molly and Squil helped guide him over to a large boulder to sit down, "What happened to you?"

"W-we were attacked," he answered between shakey breaths, "I-I t-t-tried to stop t-them but there was too many of them."

"Whoa, whoa Ploosh, slow down. First you need to calm down and then tell us what happened in a way that we can understand."

Tears started to run down his cheeks, "I'm sorry, but I tried to stop them from taking him but I wasn't strong enough to do so."

"Whose them and who did they take? You're still not making sense."

His tears started to flow faster as he choked out his next sentence, "Kelp, they took Kelp. A group of Octolings attacked us and after they had knocked me out they took Kelp with them."


	23. A Second Chance

_Author's notes: I forgot to mention a special thanks to Tehreign, author of "Of Ink and Science" in previous chapters for allowing me to use his character in my story. Being involved in the Shared Universe project has certainly been interesting..._

 _Go Team Art and Team Science this weekend in Splatfest, may the best team win._

 _That is all readers but don't forget to review and ask any questions you have._

 _As I usually say at the beginning of every chapter...enjoy!_

 **Chapter 23: A Second Chance**

"Ploosh, you know it wasn't your fault."

"Was it?" he mumbled as he continued to look off in the distance. A gauze pad taped to his cheek which had to be regularly changed since the cut was so deep. The deepest cuts he had received however might never heal unless they could get Kelp back from the Octarians.

"Come on Ploosh, sit down next to me," Inka called out to him. Sighing he did and she wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"So I guess we're back to where we were nearly a year ago," Callie stated as she placed a thick folder on the table. As soon as it landed files slid out and across the table.

"Not quite," Molly insisted as she picked up one of the files and looked at it. It was one of dozens of files they had on victims that had disappeared and later reappeared as Octolings that quickly reverted back into Inklings or Inklings that they had found already changed back but were still feeling the affects of ink poisoning. In every case when questioned none could recall anything about what had happened to them while they were reported missing. After several months of getting no where with it and still no clues as to the source of the strange Octarian ink the police had pulled them off the case and continued the search on their own. The fact that Callie still had these files implied she had always hoped to get back to solving the mystery, "we just need to figure out where they took him and get him before he gets turned into an Octoling."

"Easier said then done Molly," Squil replied as he took a different file from of the table and looked at it, "If even one of the victims could remember it could making finding him a lot easier."

"But none of them do, thus making that possibility impossible," quickly getting up Ploosh headed towards the door of the shack.

"Where are you off to?"

"I got to tell my aunt about Kelp. She called me before he'd arrive to tell me to keep an eye on him since she couldn't get a hold of Marlin. I have to let her know that she may have lost her youngest child to an old foe of our race."

"Ploosh, give us more time to-"

"No! I should have told her about Marlin and I didn't. I'm not gonna let that guilt gnaw on my soul any longer!" storming out he left the shack, slamming the door as he did so.

"You know...I don't think I recall him ever being this mad," Callie commented.

"I have," Inka said as she stared at the door he had left through, "He may seem like a pushover as well as a bit of a sap but when it comes to family..." she shuddered involuntarily, "...trust me...you don't want to see him when someone insults his family."

"Why would someone insult his family?"

"Because many years ago apparently a rumor went around Calamari County that his aunt was forced to marry his uncle against her will or something like that. You would have to ask him for more details...but probably not right now...obviously."

"Obviously," Squil agreed as he stood up, "I'm going to grab a bite to eat at Stella's, anybody interested in joining me?"

"I will Squil," Molly answered as she got up as well, "this whole situation has almost made me forget that I haven't eaten anything today."

* * *

"So you enjoying your food?"

"Yeah..." she nodded as she took another mouthful of Cream and Plankton soup, her vegetarian obsession having long since disappeared allowed her to eventually be willing to try the dish again. Inka was right that it was delicious, "say Squil...what's Ploosh's last name?"

"Seagrove, his name is Ploosh Seagrove. It's one of the last of the old names in existence that is still used."

"So Kelp's name is Seagrove as well?"

"Nope, Ploosh is his and Marlin's cousin on his mother's side."

"Then what is Kelp's last name?"

"I don't remember really other then the fact that it starts with a 'C'...like Coralin or something like that. Marlin didn't like talking about his family since his mother was seriously troubled after the lost of his baby sister and father. I can only imagine how distraught she'll be when Ploosh tells her about how both her sons are lost now," he paused, "Mildly curious though why do you ask?"

"Sorry, I guess I just was..."

"You were thinking about the fact that even though you've been here in Inkopolis for a year now and you still haven't had a clue as to who your parents are."

"Nor why they sent me away," she sighed as she placed her spoon next to her bowl, "there has to be a reason behind it. Everywhere I've looked I've seen countless parents who look like they wouldn't ever give up their children for the world and yet mine gave me up. They must have had a good reason."

"I'm sure they did and I'm also sure we'll find out what that reason was once we find them."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah," he smiled, "I'm sure we will."

"So...you were an orphan?"

Turning toward the source of the voice Squil growled as he glared at the newcomer, "What do you want Whark?"

The 17 year old teal Inkling took a step back as he held up his hands, "Chill out Squil...I'm not going to attack you your girlfriend."

"Well I find that really hard to believe considering you tried to kill her twice."

"I told you before the first time was an accident and I wasn't myself when I was an Octoling."

"That doesn't mean that..." suddenly Squil's coldness towards him died out to be replaced quickly by confusion, "wait...? You can remember being an Octoling?"

"Parts of it. Certain memories started coming back about a month ago" he said not daring to look at either of them, "like for example how I was sent to eliminate Agent 4...which I'm assuming is you?" he looked up at Molly as he asked this.

"Y-yes," she stuttered out as she stared at him in disbelief.

"Don't worry Molly...yours, and I'm assuming your boyfriend's secret is safe with me."

"Promise?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Cross my hearts and hope I never get splatted," he stated with a faint hint of a smile as he crossed his finger over his three hearts. "Besides it makes sense now."

"What does?"

"Why Marlin always seemed to be hiding stuff behind my back when we were younger, why he always was sneaking around. He was an agent like you two...right?"

"Yes he was, he was known as Agent 3 and if it weren't for his bravery and courage we might never have gotten the Great Zapfish back from the Octarians who have been our enemies for a very long time."

"I understand that now," he shook his head like he was trying to clear mental cobwebs, "the Octarians were heartless to me and the others who were changed into Octolings. I-I think I even tried to escape but they recaptured me and forced more of that strange stuff down my throat..." he shuddered at the memory, "what was that stuff they forced us to consume?"

"According to what we have been able to determine it seems to be Octarian ink but it contains the genetic information for orange ink as well."

"Orange? Why a color that is nearly extinct in our current society? I mean as it is the only two orange Inklings I've ever seen is Marlin and...well, you Molly."

She cringed inwardly at his comment. This thought, as well as dozen others had given her constant worry and stress over the last year which in turn had made it difficult for her to sleep at night. If it weren't for the fact that she now lived in her own apartment the others might have found out about her sleeping troubles long ago which might have led to her telling them about Ty. Something she still wasn't sure whether to say anything about it yet to anybody else other than Callie, who had seemed slightly worried that the dream had returned after a year long absence.

"But if you can remember stuff then maybe you can lead us to wherever they have taken the Inklings that never came back," Squil said to Whark, breaking Molly away from her thoughts, "do you think you could do that?"

"Possibly, but there's no way I'm going back in there," fear crossed over his eyes as more memories from the past came to him, "there is no way I'm going back into that cold, dark place."

"You don't have to Whark," Molly insisted as she got up from her seat and came over to him, "all you have to do is tell us how to get there and we'll do the rest."

"Okay," he sighed in relief.

"We better gather up the others. Squil, you and Whark go get Inka from her apartment while I head to Ploosh's."

"Why am I going to Inka's...and with him?" he pointed at Whark as he said this.

"Because unlike you Ploosh nearly succeeded in attacking him after a certain Turf War match if I remember correctly," she answered, "and I'm hoping if you two start hanging around each other you'll both see that both of you are not out to get the other so the both of you can stop glaring daggers at each other."

The two of them suddenly turned red in embarrassment as they looked away from glaring at each other.

"I'll see you two in an hour...in one piece," she gave them a death glare as she said the last part, making them wince, "in the meantime I'm off to go get Ploosh," with out missing a beat she turned around and ran towards the direction of Ploosh's apartment.

As soon as she was out of sight Whark turned to face Squil, a slightly worried look in his eyes, "Remind me again where you found her again?"

He smiled sadly at him before answering, "trust me on this...if I did told you Whark you might not believe me."

* * *

By the time Molly had made it to Ploosh's apartment she was nearly out of breath from running. Gasping for air she knocked on his door.

After several minutes he opened it a crack and peered out from it, "Molly?"

"Hey Ploosh," she greeted as she panted, "we might have found a way to rescue Kelp but we got to go now and-"

"Look Molly," he interrupted as he opened the door a little more, "I would love to go but I can't."

"What? Why?"

"Because I have someone visiting," he looked somewhat embarrassed about it.

"Who?"

"Ploosh? Who is that at the door?" a woman's voice asked from inside the house.

"Just a friend," he yelled back into the house.

"Well why don't they come inside sweetie?"

"Because she was just leaving," he responded as Molly fought back the urge to burst out laughing.

"Oh...she's a girlfriend than?

"Aunt May," he groaned as he placed his face in his hands, "she is a girl and a friend but she is not my girlfriend. She's my best friend's girlfriend."

"Well why didn't you just say that in the first place?" she asked him as she walked towards the door and forced it open even wider. Revealing the woman to be a female Inkling in her late thirties with lime green tentacles and eyes, "and why are you acting like you don't want me to meet her Ploosh? I'm always interested in your friends...girlfriend or not."

"Sorry Aunt May," he mumbled as his cheeks burned red.

Molly eyes suddenly widened, "You must be Kelp and Marlin's mother."

She turned away from looking at Ploosh as she groaned, "Don't tell me that my sons still refuse to go by their real names?"

"U-um..." Molly stuttered.

"It's alright my dear, I'm not mad at you," she gave her a gentle smile as she patted her on the shoulder, "Marin and Kell are so like Walter, their father, before he..." the smile suddenly disappeared as she almost seemed to enter another world, one of sadness and loss.

"Aunt May," Ploosh prompted as he shook her shoulder to make her return to the present, "are you alright?"

"Um...yes Plooshie dear I'm fine," she answered as she shook her head.

Molly quickly placed her hands in front of her mouth to hide her snort.

"Oh...so you're mocking my nephew's pet name are you?" the smile returned, "what is your name anyway? You can't be much older then my little Kell."

"My name is Mollinda but I prefer to be called Molly Mrs...?"

"Colorian, May Colorian and my late husband was called Walter Colorian. This is my nephew Ploosh Seagrove."

"Aunt May she knows who I am," Ploosh moaned, "besides she needs to be going."

"How come?"

"We were going to hang out together with some friends," Molly quickly supplied, "but since you're visiting he didn't want to leave you alone."

"Ploosh, don't let me keep you from going and having fun. Go on, I'll be fine."

"Bu-"

"Ploosh," she raised an eyebrow as a threatening tone entered into her voice.

"Um...right," walking down the steps backwards he held his hands up as he smiled nervously, "I'll be going now Aunt May," pushing Molly ahead of him as they walked away from the porch, "I'll be back before dark."

"Alright Ploosh...be safe," she walked back inside and closed the door behind her.

"So...that's your aunt? She seems pretty nice."

"In comparison to how my Uncle Walter was when he got mad sure but Aunt May knows how to guilt people into saying things. When me and Kell were little we couldn't ever get away with anything without her finding out."

"Did you tell her?"

"No, by some minor miracle I kept my mouth shut, but if you hadn't shown up I'm not sure how much longer I could hold up. I hate to say this...but Molly you're a lifesaver."

"Really?" a smile formed on her face.

"It's not funny Molly!" he growled in frustration, "never mind, let's go meet up with the others and hope we really can go rescue my little cousin or I really will be neck deep in trouble when I get home."


	24. Octarnick's Wrath

_Author's notes: Man this was a pretty tricky one to write but it was still fun anyways._

 _Don't forget to review and ask any questions you have for me._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 24: Octarnick's Wrath**

"Anybody else feel like we are walking into a trap?" Squil asked no one in particular as they traveled through the narrow passageways of the Octarian base that they were in.

"Ooh, ooh, I do!" Ploosh cried out sarcastically while raising his hand, "and now I'm starting to debate which is worse; my aunt or this."

Inka rolled her eyes at him,"I'm sure everyone appreciates your comment Agent 6."

"What? I'm just pointing out the fact that this could kill us all versus my aunt will probably only kill me for not keeping an eye on my cousin."

"Guys, can we please just go back to working on the mission at hand?" Molly groaned as she partially pulled her pilot goggles down in frustration.

"Are those two normally like this?" Whark's voice rang in her ears, "because if so I wonder how you and Agent 5 can ever handle them."

Over the past year Molly had made various changes to her hero suit. One of which being small microphone/speaker radio receivers. They were small enough to be inserted far enough into her ears so that they couldn't get wet like the headset she had worn when she first started out. So she now wore her goggles on her head instead of the headset while on mission. It was these receivers that currently allowed her to speak to Whark, "It takes time but eventually you'll get used to their constant bickering."

"We don't bicker," the two of them declared simultaneously.

"I think I rest my case."

"Let's just focus on the task at hand," stopping at a four way crossroad she looked down each direction, "okay we're at the crossroad, which direction do we go from here?"

"The left will take you to the fighting barracks where they trained us and to the right was where they kept us under lock and key until we had completed training which might be where they are keeping Kelp."

Squil stepped forward to standing next to Molly, "What about ahead of us Whark? What lies in that direction?"

He hesitated before answering, "I-I'm not sure. I don't remember anything from that direction."

"Very well...Agents 6 and 7 will got check the right pathway while Agent 5 goes to the barracks."

"What about you Agent 4?"

"I'm going to go check out the hallway straight ahead of us."

"What? No you aren't."

"Yes I am Agent 5," Molly insisted, "I'm the leader of this team so it's my responsibility to take care of my teammates. Now all three of you get going and if any of you find anything..." she tapped the base of one of her ears, "...let me know."

The three of them nodded before each going in the direction they had been given instructions to investigate. Molly watched them for a few seconds before heading down the unknown hallway.

After walking down it and coming across no one she came to a door labeled "Laboratory" in fancy lettered Takoyakese. The Octarian equivalent of Calamarese that also wasn't spoken much out loud nowadays like Calamarese.

Gently turning the knob she was slightly surprised to see that the door wasn't locked. Pulling out her Hero Shot she held it out in front of her as she slipped into the room and surveyed her surroundings.

The room was split into two by a large glass wall with a door allowing access to the other side of the glass. Inside the other room was a cot with a pile of blankets on it and not much else. Inside the room she was in was a long observation station in front of the glass that had several stools next to it and piles of books, notes and other various other pieces of paper on it.

Picking up a yellowing piece of paper she was shock to discover it was covered in someone's notes on genetics. Picking up a musty book she saw it was about organic bioengineering.

"What were the Octarians up to?" she whispered as she sorted through more stuff. Eventually a worn notebook caught her eye from underneath a large stack of paper. Carefully sliding it out she brought it up to the dim light to see that the title of it was called, "Origins of Abilities".

"Abilities? What abilities?" flipping it open to a page near the beginning she found herself reading some form of introduction on the topic.

 _For thousands of years both of our species had developed various skills to allow us to survive in the harsh environment under the sea but as Inklings and Octarians have evolved into our current states some of these skills from our ancestor's past lives have evolved with us. These skills are now often referred to as abilities. Even though tons of research has given us the knowledge of what many of them are like there are potentially many more abilities that may remain undiscovered for the rest of our lives._

 _In our two current societies however most of these abilities will never fully manafest themselves. No research has been able to confirm why such a sudden anomaly would occur in our races after thousands of years but what research and looking back in history has been able to confirm is that if certain terms are met these abilities will sometimes awaken for a few generations before becoming dormant once more._

 _Some abilities have changed very little over the course of thousands of years but a small few have evolved just as much as our two species have. The strangest, and potentially the most dangerous of these abilities are so for two reasons. The first reason being that the users of such abilities often have access to them far sooner then most standard abilities that would normally manafest after the age of 14. The second, and potentially more serious, reason for these certain abilities being potentially very dangerous is the fact that many of them have either two or more stages. Having access to these various stages of the ability develops over time and often the user will gain access to these upper stages during times of increased stress. Unlike the others these special abilities have always been present even while other abilities have been in periods of dormancy. Nothing has been able to explain why this happens._

 _All in all whether discussing the standard abilities or the more advance ones one thing seems to be certain in all research that has been done on the subject, and that is color always seems to affect which ability will manafest._

A sudden sound brought her back to the present, causing her to drop the notebook in the process. It fell back onto the table and a great cloud of dust flew up into the air, making her cough several times until the dust cleared. Looking around she tried to find the source of the sound.

Movement out of the corner of her eye brought her attention to the other side of the glass. The pile of blankets on the cot had started to move until they slid down into the lap of the person that had been underneath them.

"Kelp?" Molly gasped as she recognized who it was.

The expression he had told her that he was as equally surprised as she was. Flinging the sheets away from him he rushed over to the glass and started to bang on it furiously while shouting at her as she ran up to her side of the glass. Whatever he was trying to tell her however was lost to her since the glass was too thick to allow the sound to pass through.

"Kelp, don't worry I'll..." she froze as she took a closer look at him. His tentacles tied up in a ponytail weren't the same shape anymore and dangled far lower than they normally would. The markings around his eyes had also partially changed to only going around the bottom part of his eyes and had taken on a faint purple tint. His eyes were mostly still bright lime green but they too were changing into a more emerald green color.

The Octarians were already trying to turn him into an Octoling.

"A friend of yours Agent 4?"

Whipping around to face the owner of the voice Molly quickly found herself staring at an all to familiar face, "Hello Octarnick."

"My, my, quite a bit of hostility for a fourteen year old," he stopped leaning against the door jam and took a step towards her, "or is it fifteen now?"

"I'm fifteen you eight-limbed jerk!" she barked as she aimed her Hero Shot at him, "What did you do to Kelp?"

"Ah, so you do know him," a smile crept onto his lips which allowed her to see his three sharp fangs, "that means this will make it all the more satisfying when I take you down."

"Don't be so certain that I'll be easy to take out Octarnick. I've had quite a lot of time to get better."

"Then we'll just have to see then how good you are..." he pulled out an Octoshot and aimed it at her chest, "...shall we?"

Before he could move she knocked the weapon out of his hand with her own and it skidded across the floor to rest underneath the table well out of his reach.

"Hm..." he stared at his empty hand for a brief moment slightly surprised, "you're right...I did misjudge you. But that doesn't mean I'll make the same mistake," lunging towards her he pinned her to a wall and forced her to drop her Hero Shot with a loud clatter. He then kicked it away to have it end up next to where his weapon was, "There, now we're even."

"That's what you think Octarian," reach backwards with the hand that wasn't pinned to the wall she pulled out a long pole like object from a sheath on her back and smacked Octarnick on the top of his head with it.

Yelping loudly in pain he rubbed the spot where she had hit him as he growled deeply in his throat, "You hit me with a long stick?"

"It's not a long stick Octarnick," thumbing a switch on the handle a brush head bursted out of the end and faint blue lights glowed on the black and yellow shaft as she rotated it in her hands to hold it out in front of her, "I call this the Hero Brush, I designed and created it myself."

"Big deal, I can still take you out," grabbing a thin metal pipe he tried to use it to sweep her legs out from under her.

jumping over the pipe she switched the Hero Brush back into its staff form and raised it above her head as he swung the pipe at her head. The jarring sensation ran down the length of her arms but she kept them firm as she continued to spar with the Octoling.

Eventually Octarnick's swings with the pipe started to slow down like he was getting tired. Using the blunt end she roughly shoved him backwards into a wall and pinned him there. Struggling he tried to shift the end off of his chest but Molly simply pushed harder until he gasped in pain and had given up on his attempts at freedom.

"I told you I've been training."

"So it would seem," he replied through gritted fangs as he looked down at the staff planted firmly into his chest, "I guess I really did misjudge you Agent 4."

"Now tell me Octarnick..." she said in as calm of a voice as she could muster, "...what have you done to him?" she then pointed over at Kelp.

He snorted, "Like I care what happens to your little green friend. The only thing I care about is getting rid of you and your annoying tendency to ruin our leader's plans."

She shook her head in disbelief, "Why do you keep trying to kill me? What on Terra have I ever done to you?"

"Nothing, at least not to me directly. I'm simply following orders Inkling."

"From who?"

"Why should I tell you? You're the enemy."

"Ugh! I'm really getting sick and tired of hearing that you know."

"No I didn't know," his smile returned, "but you want to know something?"

"What?"

"You really need to work on not letting your guard down," grabbing hold of the end of the staff he twisted it out from her hands, which she had accidentally loosened her grip on, and quickly used it to push her up the against the same wall he had only moments before been up against himself.

Pushing the staff up to her neck he quickly caused her to start having difficulties breathing, "a proper warrior would never let his or her guard down unless it's in front of a corpse," he pressed the staff up harder against her neck, causing her air supply to be cut off, "Anything to say before I splat you into oblivion?"

Grabbing both ends she tried to push the staff away from her throat so that she could breath but he was stronger then her and was able to firmly keep it where it was. He started to chuckle as he watched her struggle underneath her own weapon.

" _This is just like before in the alley with Whark and Neel,_ "Molly thought as her strength began to fail her. " _I wonder..."_ she gave up on trying to move the staff as Octarnick smirked at her weak attempts to free herself.

"I knew you Inklings were soft," he sneered evilly.

" _Come on, come on..._ " she started mentally chanting over and over in her head as her vision started to turn black around the edges, " _please work or I'm dead calamari for sure._ "

A familiar flare of pain suddenly shot through her chest and around her body as she felt the now well known aches and pains from changing from her Inkling form into her Landdweller form.

Her height didn't change too much so Octarnick was still able to keep the staff up against her throat but her arms were longer so she could actually reach him. Reaching behind his head she tried to yank his head forward so that he would get distracted enough so that she could free herself, but as she did so he tried to pull his head away from her reach and ended up causing her to grab the strap of his metal goggles.

With a loud snap the buckle of the goggles broke and Octarnick was immediately sent flying backwards from the force. Finally free Molly gasped deeply as she messaged the spot where her staff had rested only seconds before and was slowly killing her. Picking up her staff from where Octarnick had dropped it she switched it into its brush form and aimed the orange ink filled bristles at him as he rubbed his eyes in pain, "Give it up Octarnick, you lost."

"I knew I wasn't crazy," he muttered under his breath as he continued to rub his eyes, "I knew there was something strange about you Agent 4."

"What?" she readjusted her grip on the handle of her brush nervously.

"I'm gonna kill you Agent 4!" taking his hands away from his eyes Molly could see that his eyes were not the standard bright emerald green like all Octarians had even though he still had the purple markings around the bottom of his eyes.

They were bright orange, the same color as her own.

"What are you? Are you an Inkling?" she asked as she backed away from him.

"I'm an elite Octoling warrior, not an Inkling!" he nearly screamed as he lunged towards her, rage burning deep in his eyes, "and I'm gonna kill Agent 4, even if I have to do it with my bare hands!" reaching up towards her face with his hands he tried to claw out her eyes.

She pushed him away with her Hero Brush in fear. Switching it back into staff form she hit a certain point on one of his arms and it immediately went limp and fell to his side.

"What on...?" he had started to say as he looked down at his motionless arm before she did the exact same thing to his other arm. Seconds later she hit a spot on both his legs and he fell down like a bag of rocks with a growl of frustration, "what on Terra have you done to me Inkling?"

"Haven't you heard of pressure points?"

"Remove this spell or whatever it is you did off me!"

"I can't, but you should be able to move again in a half an hour or so."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Splat me Inkling!" he bared his fangs at her but the fact that he was laying on the floor unable to move his limbs made it seem far less menacing.

"No."

"No?"

"No, I refuse to kill you Octarnick."

"Why?!"

"Unlike you I don't take pleasure in the pain of others. But even then it would probably be a far harsher punishment for you to let you live then to kill you," slipping her staff back in its sheath on her back she grabbed a set of keys from off the table and unlocked the door that led into the glass observation room.

Walking up to where Kelp had slumped down to the floor after pounding on the wall for several minutes she lifted him up and carried his shivering form in her arms. In her Landdweller form she was able to lift him easily but she could feel his body getting colder by the second as his shivers became weaker. He needed medical help quickly and time was running out.

Slipping back out of the glass room she headed in the direction of the door and was about to order the rest of the team to return to the randezvous point when Octarnick yelled at her at the top of his lungs, "You should've killed me Inkling, because now the next chance I get I'm gonna kill you and I won't hold back!"

She didn't turn to face him but instead continued to walk out the door and out of his sight with Kelp cradled in her arms.


	25. Family Ties

_Author's notes: Things are starting to come together in more ways than one for Molly and the others. I hope you guys are all ready for this._

 _Team Art won over the weekend and I'd like to congratulate both Team Art for winning and Team Science for putting up a good fight, (seriously, I ran into quite a few good teams for the science side who totally whooped us.)_

 _As per usual all questions and reviews are gladly appreciated by the author._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 25: Family Ties**

"You let Agent 4 and the others escape!"

Octarnick grimaced as he rubbed the back of his head nervously, his goggles having been roughly repaired so that they wouldn't fall off his face, "She took me off guard General Octari but next time I'll-"

"There's never going to be a next time Octarnick because you're done. You're stripped of your title as Sargent and will go back to reporting to Sargent Octatia. If it weren't for the fact that you have received a great amount of favor from Octavious I would have demanded you to hand over your kelp strands and would've sent you to work at the power plants quicker then you could even blink."

Octarnick bit his tongue to prevent himself from saying something he might regret later. He hated when someone pointed out that Octavious had been particularly nice to him over the last year or so. It had often made him wonder why the twenty some year old son of the great DJ Octavio would ever care about a lowly teenage Octoling who had memory problems, but he had never dared speak his concerns out loud in front of anyone except Octatia.

"General, if I may...?"

"No you may not and now you better be out of my sight in the next ten seconds or I'll get rid of you myself...and not in the good way," she placed a hand onto a charger type weapon near her desk as she glared at him with her eyes, the golden edging around the green almost seeming to flash as she looked at him, "do I make myself clear Octarnick?"

He sighed, "Yes General Octari. I'll be leaving now," he slowly shuffled out of the room with his head held low.

Several minutes after he had left Octari had her back to the door when she heard a voice stating, "perhaps I put too much faith in you when I gave you the task of keeping an eye on the boy."

She turned around to find her young leader Octavious leaning up against her desk with an air of disappointment about him. She had seen him in fouler moods than what he currently was in but she knew not to push her luck, "I have been keeping an eye on the boy my Lord Octavious."

"Then perhaps you would like to explain why he was in the observation lab when we were experimenting on that lime green Inkling?"

It was now her turn to wince nervously, "He seemed to suspect nothing and besides he may have succeeded in preventing the Squidbeak Splatoon from discovering your plans."

"Can we confirm that? Not to mention the fact that they took the Inkling boy with them. That Octarnick has caused us more harm than good for us and you have shown no signs of fulfilling your orders of eliminating him when he became too problematic."

"I still need to confirm whether he does know too much, I need more time," she insisted.

"You're just about out of time Octari and I can't really afford to give you more," walking back towards the door he paused just before walking out, "you are a good general and I would hate it if I had to replace you as well as Octarnick, keep that in mind Octari," with that he left her office.

As soon as he was out of earshot Octari let out a sigh as she plopped back down into her seat. She then started to rub her eyes in mild frustration, "Oh Octarnick, why on Terra have you gotten yourself into this mess? I can't keep Octavious in the dark forever."

* * *

Staring at the motionless form of Kelp on the bed Molly couldn't help but notice how small and skinny he seemed.

Height wise he probably was no taller then her but most of the boys her age had already started on their growth spurt and were already at least a good inch or two taller than her. He also had a very thin frame which was interesting considering most Inklings who primarily used rollers often had more muscle on their arms and chest after little less then a year.

"Why do you still look like a little kid Kelp?" she mumbled under her breath.

"Ah, that's just normal Colorian genes my dear."

Nearly jumping out of her seat Molly quickly turned around to see a female Inkling with sky blue tentacles and blue topaz colored eyes standing in the doorway of the bedroom, "Oh! Mrs. Aquatica I..."

"It's alright Mollinda," Teron Aquatica replied with a smile, "I was only saying that all the male Colorians are a tad bit skinny at this age."

"Please ma'am I'd prefer to be called Molly and how did you know he was a Colorian?"

"He looks a lot like Walter when he was that age," she mused as she walked over to his side with a bowl full of lime green ink and a cloth. Soaking the cloth with the ink she dabbed the top of Kelp's head with it, "plus my son told me that his name was Kell Colorian. Although I am curious as to how he got in such a critical state."

"It's complicated Mrs. Aquatica and we knew the hospital would ask too many questions about it," Molly answered her. After the team had gotten him back to Octo Valley they had to force him to expel the poisonous ink from his body. Once they had done so they had brought him to Squil's parents' house to get treatment from Squil's mother who had been a nurse before taking on her current position. "I'm sorry that..."

"It's alright Molly if you can't tell me. I'm sure there's a reason."

"Just as long as its not something illegal of course," a voice said before the owner, a blue male Inkling with deep sapphire blue eyes, poked his around the corner of the door.

"No Mr. Aquatica, nothing illegal occurred I can assure you of that."

Kern Aquatica shrugged, "Just making sure my dear. I would hate to find out that my son was getting into something dangerous. You sure seem like a nice girl."

She blushed, "Thank you sir. You son has been pretty nice too, I mean handsome, I mean, oh..." her blush suddenly went several shades darker as she stumbled to find the right words.

"Hey Molly! I made..." Squil started to say as he walked into the room with a plate with two sandwiches on it but stopped when he saw her bright red blush, "...did I miss something?"

"No, it's alright Squil. Your mom and dad were just talking to me."

He groaned, "Please tell me they weren't talking about how cute I was when I was a baby squid or something like that were they?"

Teron giggled at her son's embarrassment, "Oh Squil, we would never embarrass you in front of your girlfriend."

"Not unless we don't want any grandsquids from you boy," Kern grumbled under his breath.

"D-dad!" Squil cried out as he started to turn pink while Molly turned a shade more red, "we have only been dating less than a year! We're not getting married yet!"

"Your father is just teasing you Squil. We didn't get married until we were both 19 and then when I laid your egg I was just about 20. Oh your egg was so pretty with the two different colors of blue and because it was pretty even between the two colors we weren't quite sure if you-"

"Mom!" he nearly screamed, looking like he on the verge of wanting to melt into the carpet on the floor.

"Oh, sorry dear," Teron cooed as she gently rubbed the back of his neck, causing him to start purring.

"Have you ever wanted more than one kid Mr and Mrs Aquatica?" Molly asked, much to the dismayed expression on Squil's face once his mother had stopped rubbing his Soulspot.

"To be perfectly honest Molly we had tried several times after Squil had hatched to have another but every time I formed another egg it never succeeded in becoming fertilized. Sometimes female Inklings will only have one chance to have children and once that chance has passed it will never happen again. But don't let that worry you Molly I'm sure you'll have lovely children when you are ready."

"Um...okay," Molly responded, not really sure what to make of what she had been told.

"Where is he?! Where's my son?!"

Turning Molly barely had enough time to get out of the way as a tearful May Colorian rushed over to Kelp's side. Looking him over her tears started to flow even more freely, "What happened to him?"

"He was poisoned but we were able to..." Squil started to say.

"I didn't ask you!" May Colorian snapped, making Squil jump back in surprise, "I asked her!"

"M-me?" Molly stammered as she pointed to herself.

"Yes you! My nephew has mentioned that you have hung out with my son and the fact that you are here next to him as he lies here unconscious seems rather odd if you ask me."

"We were good friends Ms. Colorian but nothing else was happening between us and-"

"Molly," Squil was looking down on the ground with a slightly winded Ploosh standing behind him, "she deserves to know what happened to him and Marin."

"Marin? You know where Marin is?" her eyes were wide in near disbelief before turning back to face Molly, "Where is my other son?"

Molly swallowed nervously before speaking, "Marin was kidnapped by a race known as the Octarians and hasn't been seen since. Kell was taken too but we were able to track him down and rescue him before they could do anything permanent to him."

"So what you're saying is my son Marin is...lost?"

"We can't confirm that for certain Ms. Color-"

"Were you with him when he was taken?!" she stormed over to Molly in near hysteria and roughly grabbed her by the shoulders, "Are you why he's gone?!"

"No I wasn't!" she quickly insisted, "I showed up several days afterwards on my birthday!"

"And what day was that?!"

"June 2nd!" tears were starting to we'll up at the corners of her eyes in fear.

May Colorian froze as her eyes grew wide, "What? How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

Holding her out at arms length May Colorian looked her up and down before suddenly bringing her close and sniffed the top of her head like someone would sniff a flower.

"Ms. Colorian what...?" Molly started to say before she caught a smell she hadn't smelled in over a year. Seaweed and the smell of the ocean breeze, a scent that had always calmed her down ever since she was little, which is why she always liked how Lily would come home from work smelling like that.

Suddenly a saying someone had told her awhile ago came to mind...

" _You can disbelieve me all you want but if there's one thing we Octolings and Inklings share other then our hatred for each other then that's how strong the connection between a mother and her baby can be...even to a point where even if the baby has never met its mother it can still recognize the person who laid their egg._ "

"M-mom?" she stammered out as she looked into the green female Inkling's face. She had the same pale skin tone and slightly upturned shape in her nose like she did as well as a faint splash of freckles on the top of her cheeks that had faded to almost noyhing over the years where on Molly they were still quite noticeable. Tears had started to flow down Molly's face but it wasn't for the same reason as before.

"Oh...my daughter."

"Mom!" wrapping her arms around her Molly started to sob as she laid her head up against May Colorian's chest. Reaching around her right tentacle May Colorian stroked behind her ear and immediately Molly started to purr.

"Oh Sia..."

Molly looked up at her, "Sia?"

"Why yes, that's the name I had picked for you when you hatched, Sia Colorian."

Molly smiled wryly, "Um...no offense Mom but I really would prefer to be called Molly still if you don't mind."

"Molly Colorian...I suppose it will do," smiling widely she hugged her again.

"Wait...but then that means..."

"Molly is your cousin Ploosh as well as Kell's and Marin's sister," Squil supplied to a stunned Ploosh, "I guess it's a good thing that she and Kell didn't get together."

Ploosh said something incomprehensible before fainting on the spot.

"Ploosh!" pulling away from May Colorian she dropped down to where Ploosh had fallen to the floor, "come on dude, we don't need two people knocked out in here," she tried to shake him awake but he didn't even stir.

"Mom? Why is Cousin Ploosh on the floor?"

Several pairs of eyes turned to see Kell sitting up in the bed with a very confused expression on his face.

"Kell," smiling Molly came over to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders while May Colorian beamed down at the two of them, "how are you feeling?"

"Um...okay?" he looked up at his mom even more puzzled, "Mom what's going on?"

"Well Kell there's something I need to tell," May Colorian answered as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

After Squil with his parents and Ploosh, once he had reawaken, had left the room Kell patiently listened through the story of the events that had occured while he was unconscious. Once the the two of them were finished Kell nodded his head once,"I get that the fact that Molly is my twin sister and that she saved me but I have to ask Mom...why did you lie about Molly dying and send her away?"

"What my answer is will be determined by the answer I get for a question I have for Molly," grabbing hold of Molly's hand she looked directly into her orange eyes with her own lime green ones, "Molly, have you discovered your ability?"

"My ability?"

"Yes...your ability."

"You mean when I..." she winced slightly as she allowed the pain to run its course through her body as her eyes flashed bright orange.

"Not here Molly!" May Colorian hissed as she tightly squeezed Molly's hand, making her lose focus and the pain vanished as quickly as it had arrived. She then sighed, "I see you've started to learn to use it on demand. Your father didn't learn to do that until he was 17."

"Dad had the same ability?"

She nodded, "Inklings who have this ability are known as Changelings and it only appears in orange born Inklings."

"Why only in the orange Inklings?"

"Who knows Molly, according to what your father told me every Inkling has the potential of having an ability but most of the time it fails in the Inkling and no ability manafests, but in the orange Inklings there is no sort of initiative process and they are born with the ability ready to be used."

"But I'm still not sure I fully understand what my ability even is."

"Changelings can change their form into the form of another species or race, which at first they have very little control over in their youth but will have somewhat of an amount of control by the time they reach adulthood, but in order to use this ability they need to have a sample of that species DNA."

"What kind of sample?"

"Blood works the best but saliva would work too as well anything that contains DNA."

"Blood...?" Molly suddenly remembered Lily's story of finding her in the alley, "...so if I bit someone as a baby I would've been able to turn into the same species as that person?"

"You're thinking about the humans you were raised with," May Colorian held up a hand as Molly opened her mouth to speak, "yes...I do refer to them by the name they call themselves but only because your father always called them humans. Your father was part of a secret military operation meant to keep tabs on the Octarians."

"Like what Captain Cuttlefish has us do," Molly quickly said before realizing her slip up, "uh...I mean-"

"I figured that was what was happening when you said Marin was taken and you joined shortly thereafter. Your father was the son of one of Cuttlefish's old friends so the two knew each other very well," she absent-mindedly fingered a silver ring on one of her fingers, "it's funny how the apple didn't fall too far from the tree."

"But what was the need to send me away."

"Have you heard about the stories of the orange Inklings in the Great Turf War Molly?"

"I've heard that many either were found killed or disappeared during and after the war."

May Colorian nodded, "Many of the orange Inklings who had access to their Changeling ability would often use it in combat to confuse the Octarians, but as the war progressed the Octarians became wiser to what the orange Inklings were doing and started to attack them directly. Even after the war the Octarians still were trying to eliminate the possibility of being infiltrated by spies who looked like themselves which is why there are so few orange Inklings in existence."

"Did you know about this when you met dad?"

"When me and your father were dating he at first tried to hide his Changeling ability from me but eventually I found out when he accidentally changed into an orange Anemonite right in front of my eyes. He then told me the story I just told you but I didn't care, I still loved him and I wanted to be with him for as long as possible. The real trouble didn't start until I had laid Marin's egg and he turned out to be orange. Your father and I were scared that he might have inherited the Changeling ability but as far as we were aware he never did which made sense since sometimes the males don't inherit the ability but in the females it always seems to shows up."

"So when I hatched..."

"We were terrified for you Molly. If word had gotten to the Octarians that you existed they very well might have tried to kill you. With this in mind your father took you away to the place where the humans reside and left you there in a vague hope that one would be kind enough to raise you until you were old enough to come back on your own. That night I waited for hours for your father to come home and tell me you were safe but...he never did. It was later found out that he had been stabbed through and left to die on the outskirts of the town we lived in. You were nowhere to be found so I feared the worst and told the story of how you had fallen ill to your brothers so they wouldn't try to find you," tears started to well around her eyes, "I'm so sorry Molly that you had to go through most of your life like you did. No child deserves to be abandoned by their parents for any reason."

"But you didn't abandon me mom. You were trying to protect me, I understand that now," reaching forward Molly pulled her mom and Kell into a hug, "and for that I'll be forever grateful for that."

They stayed there for several minutes before finally May Colorian pulled away with a serious expression on her face, "Molly I must know...does anyone else know about your ability?"

"Squil, Ploosh and my friend Inka knows," she answered, making her mother wince, "but I trust all three of them with my life and Cuttlefish and his granddaughter knows."

"Well Cuttlefish is trustable but are you sure no one else does?" May Colorian asked, "because anybody who knows and is not a friend could potentially be a danger to you and anyone else you care about."

Sudden recent memory came to mind as Molly sat there, "Mom, can I ask a question?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"Whenever I changed I always seem to have orange eyes...is that always the case?"

"Yes Molly, the eye color will never change from orange in an orange Inkling, which is how the Octarians were eventually able to tell the Inklings disguised as Octarians from real Octarians..." a worried look suddenly came upon her face, "...why do you ask anyway?"

"I have to go," getting up from the bed she slipped out of the room and out of the house where she went down an empty alley. Slipping her long sleeve shirt from off her Hero Suit she stuffed it into her bag before pulling out her yellow and black shoes to replace the red sneakers she was wearing. Once she had put on her shoes and had tossed her old ones into her bag she grabbed her ink tank and harness, as well as her Hero Brush from where she had stored it behind a dumpster just before entering into Squil's parent's house.

Shifting the gear onto her shoulders she pulled off her wrist communicator and tossed it in with the rest of her stuff before placing it back behind the dumpster. Sighing deeply she turned back to the house and looked up at the window where she knew her mother and brother were probably waiting for her to come back.

"Don't worry...I'll be right back and hopefully with Marin with me," she whispered before running towards the direction of Octo Valley.

* * *

Slipping between narrow corridors of crates and boxes Molly tried to find a way into the base the team had infiltrated less than a day before, but the security had clearly been improved and every few seconds she seemed to be dodging the sight of Octarian patrols and searchlights. Whatever was happening now the Octarians clearly didn't want anybody to find out.

Ducking behind a large stacks of crates as another Octarian patrol passed by Molly suddenly spotted a small ventilation opening that led inside.

Smiling at her fortune she quickly turned to squid form and slipped through the mesh of the vent opening. Once she had gotten inside she returned back to her humanoid form and looked around.

The room she has entered in was filled with cells and inside a large number of them were Inklings ranging from 14 to 17 in age. The sounds of someone crying in the distance as well as several Inklings coughing weakly being the only sounds she could hear.

"Molly? Is that you?"

Turning to the source of the voice she found a sad and tired looking orange-red male Inkling standing next to a medium blue female Inkling in a cell.

"Zack! Soral!" rushing over to them she gripped the bars tightly in her hands as she stared at the terrible state the two were in, "How long have you been here?"

"They took us as well as Cass and Crad about two weeks ago, but they took the twins away three days ago and they haven't come back...we're starting to wonder if they killed them."

"Not likely with what I've seen," pulling her Hero Brush out she hit the lock of the door with the handle end and broke it. Opening the door she indicated for them to come out, "but I very much doubt you want to face the same fate, you need to get out of here while you have the chance."

"But Molly why are you here?"

"I don't have time to explain right now but if you go through that ventilation shaft you can escape and go get help."

"We are not leaving you Molly," Zackerel stated firmly with Soral nodding in agreement.

"It's too dangerous for you to stay here. Now you better get going before-"

"You shouldn't have come back Agent 4," a new voice whispered into her ear before she felt the sharp prick of something being injected into her neck.

Collapsing to the ground Soral screaming was the last thing Molly heard before blacking out.


	26. The Truth About Octarnick

_Author's notes: Hey everybody got another chapter for you._

 _I'm sad to say that chapters will be longer in coming due to the fact that I start college this coming week which means I'll have less time to write chapters. My goal will be to update at least once a week for you guys so that you're not waiting too long for the next new chapters._

 _And with that out of the way...enjoy!_

 **Chapter 26: The Truth About Octarnick**

As Molly opened her eyes she immediately felt a large amount of soreness as well as a continuous state of grogginess. Shifting slightly in her sitting position up against a wall revealed that her hands were tied behind her back and her Hero Brush and ink tank were gone.

"Had a nice rest?"

Lifting her head slowly she found Octarnick hovering over her with a smirk on his face, "Well if you're so interested why don't you join me?"

"I'm afraid not Agent 4, the drug I injected into your blood will prevent you from being able to moving around too much so fighting is pointless. Any attempt will simply cause you to get very tired and potentially knock you back out."

"Marin you have to let me go. Don't you see what's happening to your fellow Inklings?"

He released a sharp cry of laughter, "Marin? Never been called that before but that might be because that's not my name."

"Yes it is, you're Marin Colorian otherwise known as Marlin or Agent 3 and you are an Inkling just like me."

"I'm an Octoling...not a weak little Inkling. If I was I think I would know."

"But what about the fact that you have orange eyes instead green?"

If he didn't have his goggles on Molly was almost certain she would have seen him roll his eyes at her, "I have a genetic mutation that caused my eyes to be orange."

"No you don't Marin, you're an orange Inkling, the Octarians only want you to think that you're one of them."

"Wow...that drug must have made you delirious as well as weak," he commented, not believing a single word she said.

"I'm serious Marin. You need to snap out of it and listen to me otherwise-"

"Stop calling me that stupid sounding name!" he snapped, making her fall silent, "Now while we are walking you better be quiet."

Molly ears slightly pricked upwards at his comment, "Where are you taking me?"

"There is a certain someone who's been wanting to meet you ever since he heard about your antics and he goes by the name of Lord Octavious," his smile grew wider as he saw the fear enter into her eyes, "Scared Agent 4? Good...you should be," pulling her roughly up on her feet he pushed the barrel of his gun roughly into her back to force her to move. With her head held low she went the direction he ordered her to go.

After about ten minutes of walking Molly was starting to understand what he was talking about with the effects of the drug. Her mind seemed to be getting foggier by the second and it took all her effort to keep herself moving. Several times she stumbled and clumsily fell to the ground only to have Octarnick roughly lift her back up onto her feet and force her to keep moving.

As numb as she was though one thought kept running through her head and it was this thought that kept her from completely collapsing into utter despair.

 _He has to be Marin I just know it. But why does he refuse to believe me...?_

While walking through an open area Octarnick suddenly grabbed her arm to make her stop. A growl rumbling deep in his throat he rapidly glanced around the area, "Is someone there? If so show yourself!" he yelled into the gloom.

As if in answer a blast of purple colored ink hit him in the shoulder. Yelping loudly he released Molly's arm to reach for his shoulder which was already bleeding dark colored blood, allowing her to fall weakly to the ground beside him.

Aiming his Octoshot where the ink had come from he fired several shots only to be blasted with a barrage of blue ink from a different direction that cover his shooting arm and one of his legs. Crying out in pain he fell to the floor and nearly dropped his Octoshot in the process.

Molly's vision had become slightly blurry so she couldn't really identify the four figures that had hopped down from various locations and headed towards the two of them. It wasn't until one of them ran up to her and lifted her head onto his lap that she recognized who it was, "S-Squil," she replied weakly.

"Oh Molly, you scared the living daylights out of me," reaching behind her left ear he started to stroke it gently. After about a minute she started to purr but it was very quiet and weak, "what did they do to you?"

"He gave me some sort of drug that made me very weak and unable to move very much but I'm sure it will wear off soon."

"What should we do with him?" Ploosh asked as he held a roller in his hand while indicating Octarnick on the ground. The roller wasn't his normal one since it had glowing blue lights like the Hero Shot and Molly's Hero Brush and was black with yellow accents, "can I squish him? I would really like to give this Hero Roller a try."

"I knew you shouldn't have given him your roller Callie," Inka muttered to Callie as she continued to aim a charger with similar style to Ploosh's roller at Octarnick.

"No, don't hurt him!" Molly cried out as she pulled herself into a sitting position, "he's not an Octoling."

"I told you Inkling, I'm not who you think I am," Octarnick said through gritted fangs, "I've never heard of the name Marin in my life, and frankly even if I was the guy why would I even be in this dark and dismal place when I could be in the daylight and fresh air? Face it, you got the wrong guy!"

"You think this Octoling...is Marlin?" Callie asked somewhat hesitantly.

"Yeah, she does," Octarnick spat out as he slowly tried to get up from the ground, "and I'm really getting sick and tired of this..." as he got onto his feet he started to aim his Octoshot at Molly and Squil only to have Ploosh bash him in the back of his head with his Hero Roller. He immediately crumpled back down to the ground unconscious.

"Ploosh!"

"What? He was about to shoot Molly."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you dash his brains out with a roller!"

"He does have a point though Inka."

"Don't you dare defend him Squil!"

"Ugh, my head hurts...a lot..." slowly getting up from where he had fallen Octarnick rubbed the spot where Ploosh had hit him. Looking around at he group he groaned again, "Who on Terra hit me?"

"Um...me?" Ploosh answered as Inka smacked her forehead with her hand while shaking her head.

"Ploosh?" he said as he continued to rub his head, "You hit me?...with what?!"

"Octarnick?" Squil asked slightly puzzled at the Octoling's sudden change of attitude towards them.

"Octarnick? Who's Octarnick?" reaching up towards his face he pulled the goggles off to revealed an equally confused look on his face. He looked down at the goggles in his hands as well as his Octoling clothing and armor, "and why am I wearing this stuff?"

"Um...Marlin?" Inka dared to asked.

"Yeah? Who else would I be Inka?"

"I think it might be safe to say that Marin is back," Molly replied as she got to her feet with help from Squil.

Marlin shuddered as he turned to faced her, "Who on Terra told you my real name?"

"Um...your mom."

His bright orange eyes widened, "you've seen my mother? Who are you?"

"It's a long story Marin," she answered only to stumble backwards into Squil's arms, "but perhaps we should discuss this at another time."

"Whoa wait, are you okay?" he asked as he rushed over to her, "is something wrong with her Squil?"

"Well you should you know...you are the one who drugged her," Squil replied as he wrapped his arms protectively around Molly.

"I uh...what?" he took a step back, "I didn't drug her. I don't even know her!"

"Marlin..." Callie placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him, "...what was the last thing you remember?"

"W-we were on mission and...no wait I was capture by the Octarians and..." he shook his head which caused one of his strands of seaweed to fall onto his shoulder, "...and what is that?!" grabbing hold of it he yanked it only to gasp in pain when he accidentally pulled one of his tentacles in the process, "I'm wearing seaweed? Why?!"

"Perhaps it would help if you saw what you look like right now," leading him towards a metal crate Callie pointed out his reflection in the metallic surface.

He gasped faintly as he reached up to his face and his reflection did the same, "Oh my squid...what has happened to me?"

"You have an ability that allows you to mimic another species. Inklings who have this ability are known as Changelings, I should know because...I am one," letting the pain flare up Molly shifted into her Landdweller form which made her at least two inches taller than him. She the smiled wryly down at him, "See?"

No sooner had she done so her knees buckled and she fell down to the ground while her vision turned dark at the edges. She swiftly changed back, "Man...when is this drug going to wear off?!"

"Not soon enough that's for sure."

The group looked up to see a female Octoling with a charger weapon aimed at Marlin's chest.

"I'm sorry Octarnick...I wish I didn't have to do this but orders are orders and my orders are to kill you if you ever remembered who you were."

"Not while I'm here you aren't!" knocking the charger weapon out of the Octoling's hands Callie tackled her to the ground and pinned her down, "Funny...I don't recall ever hearing of an Octoling learning to use a charger."

"Who says we can't learn?" The Octoling snarled as she tried to get up from the ground.

"Noone...but something tells me that there's more to you than meets the eye," pulling a small vial with clear liquid out from a pocket in her Hero suit she forced the Octoling to open her mouth as Callie tossed whatever was in the vial down her throat.

Gagging on the concoction the Octoling struggled for breath for several minutes before throwing up a large amount of magenta colored liquid. As she continued to do this her tentacles lost all their color until the we're pale gray, almost white, two of which became longer then the others and went down past the height of her elbows. Finally finished coughing up the substance she collapsed limp on the ground as she took in ragged breaths.

It wasn't until several minutes later that she opened her eyes to reveal that they were now the same gold color as Callie's, "Cal...?"

"Marie!" Lifting her up from the ground Callie pulled her into a hug, tears flowing down her cheeks, "I finally found you!"

"Callie...how long have Marlin and I been gone?"

"Over a year," Inka supplied, "both Callie and Captain Cuttlefish figured the Octarians had killed you a long time ago."

"No...they wouldn't. Octavious would never let them do that," pulling away from her cousin she stood up from the floor, "it was all part of his plan."

"Plan? What plan?"

"The plan of revenge he had for the bitter defeat of the Great Turf War as well as the defeat of his old man DJ Octavio three years ago."

"Revenge?"

"That's not good."

"Agreed."

"Why didn't we see this sooner...it all makes sense."

"Marie you knew about this?"

"Wait...Octavio has a son?"

"Yes and it's Octavious. When Marlin defeated his father he took over as leader and everything changed for the Octarians. The only reason he trusted me was he knew I had a lot of tactical experience from being an agent plus with me consuming the Changeling serum he figured I wouldn't remember anything from my past."

"Changeling serum?"

"The stuff you saw me cough up. When they captured Marlin Octavious took a sample of his ink and manipulate the DNA of it so that he could change other Inkling into Octolings. To ensure their willingness to cooperate he added an amnesiac endotoxin to the serum to suppress any past memories the Inklings had."

"But it doesn't work permanently," Molly pointed out, "in every case we found their bodies eventually rejected it and it slowly was poisoning them to death. Also the victims eventually seem to be able to remember the events that took place while having the serum in their system, Whark is proof of that."

"Whark? You've met Whark?" Marlin asked Molly as he stared at her quizzically, "seriously, who are you?"

"My name is Molly...Molly Colorian, and I'm your sister," she answered.

His eyes widened slightly for a few seconds before a smile crept onto his face, "you're pulling on my tentacle...aren't you? I don't have a sister."

"Yes you do and it's me," she answered as she started to get irritated, "Mom lied about me dying after I hatched and if I knew that my older brother was a big fat smart aleck..."

"Whoa! Okay, okay I believe you," he quickly said as he held his hands out in front of himself to protect himself from her anger, "wow...you do act a bit like dad but now that I look you look more like mom."

"I do?"

"Yeah," he dropped his arms once he was certain she wasn't going to go after him, "you have Mom's face and skin tone but Dad's ink color...and firey personality."

"Um...thanks," a slight pink blush crossed over her cheeks.

"Not to ruin the family reunion but we should probably leave," Inka pointed out, "it's probably only a matter of time before someone else shows up."

"She's right," picking up the charger she had dropped before Marie scanned the area with the scope, "somebody is bound to wonder where I am and might start looking for me. We need to come up with a plan and quickly."

"That's the Marie I know," Callie said as her smile grew wider.

Marie rolled her eyes, "Now might not be the time for playful banter Callie."

"We need to find Octavious and take him down," Marlin stated as he slammed his fist into his other hand, "but in order to do that we need to split up to find him quicker. I'll go with Molly and Squil, Ploosh and Inka are a pair and Callie and Marie are a second pair. Keep in contact with each other with..." he suddenly paused as he looked at Molly, "wait...you don't have a headset."

"Nope...but I have these," reaching into a pocket in her Hero Suit she pulled out her two radio receivers and placed each one into one of her ears, "I was losing headsets too often so I made these."

"Um...okay," he looked away awkwardly before clearing his throat, "well we should get moving," grabbing the Octoshot he had been using he led Squil and Molly in one direction while the other two groups went off themselves.

The tension between the three grew as they went down corridor after corridor. None of them spoke for awhile until Marlin finally broke the silence, "I'm sorry Molly."

She turned to face him, "Why?"

"Because I tried to kill you."

"But you didn't know who I really was nor could you remember who you were yourself because of the serum."

"I never took any."

"What?"

"They used my ink to create the serum but they never had me take any," he slowed down slightly, "about two days after they captured me they dragged me into an observatory lab and made me watch them turn Marie into Octari. Later that night I tried to escape but I was chased down by a patrol, during which I ran into an Octoling who tried to stop me and I bit her. Once I had done that I think she clocked me in the back of the head and I blacked out. I lost my memory because of that head injury but every once in a while little bits and pieces would try to come back to me. Unfortunately I only consider them minor inconveniences that I wished would go away."

"That's not your fault Marin!" they stopped in the middle of a hallway, "you can't keep beating yourself up about it. You're almost as bad as Squil sometimes."

Marlin turned to look at Squil, "...wait a minute, are you two...?"

Squil glared at him coldly, "Why? Do you you have a problem with me dating your sister?"

"What? No, I-"

"Someone's coming!" hissed as the sound of boots reached their ears. Trying to go back the way they came the were met with the sound of boots coming towards them from that direction as well, "shoot! We're trapped."

"Maybe not, if you pretend to be my prisoners they might ignore us," Marlin suggested.

"But it's two of us verses only one of you it would still look suspicious unless..." she looked down at his expose arm and swallowed nervously as an idea formed in her mind...one of which she wasn't sure if she was going to regret later, "Marlin...you said you bit an Octoling and the next thing you remembered was being one...right?"

"Um, yeah...why do you ask?"

"I'm really sorry about this Marin," grabbing his arm she quickly pulled it up to her mouth and bit down with her fangs.

"Waugh!" he cried out before covering his mouth with his hand, but it was already too late. Whoever was coming towards them had heard him and was now running towards them quickly.

Wiping his blood off from her mouth she muttered, "I really hope this is a quick process," as soon as the words had left her mouth she groaned before falling down to her knees in pain. The burning sensation passed through her and she willed it to go faster and make her change faster. As the process happened the only thing that told her for certain that her theory had worked was the fact that her tentacles had shortened, curling up around her face as they did so, and the fact that her tentacles had changed from orange to maroon.

"Is she okay Octarnick?" a voice asked.

Looking up Molly found herself looking into the face of a female Octoling with a look of concern on her face, "she just felt a little light headed that's all," Marlin answered her having quickly put his goggles back on before the female Octoling and two other Octolings from the other direction had arrived, "once she's ready we'll be taking this Inkling scum in for questioning by order of Lord Octavious," he shoved Squil roughly in the shoulder for emphasis.

"Very well, if you're sure," nodding at both Marlin and Molly and giving Squil a slight snarl she and the other two went off on their way.

"That was too close," Squil muttered once the Octolings were out of sight and earshot, "by the way did you have to hit me that hard, that seriously hurt."

"Sorry about that," Marlin quickly apologized, "I had to make it seem convincing."

"Well at least the drug had worn off otherwise I might not have changed fast enough. So...what do you think?" Molly asked as she held out her arms in front of her, which were now pink, not as pink as most female Octolings were but certainly Pinker then her normal skin tone.

"You look like an Octoling," Squil stated flatly.

She dropped her arms back down to her side, "Well you're very informative."

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Never mind, let's just get moving," standing in front she acted like she was leading them while Marlin continued to walk behind Squil with his Octoshot trained at Squil's back.

They only ran into two other groups of Octolings and in both cases they stared briefly at Molly before looking towards each other and whispering. It wasn't until they were nearly to where Marlin had said Octavious' office was that she realized why the other Octolings were staring at her, "Oh no..."

"What?"

"I think we might be in trouble."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I just realized that I'm still wearing my Hero Suit which means-"

"Put your weapons down...Inklings," a sharp voice barked at them from behind.

Slowly Marlin placed his Octoshot on the ground while Molly did the same with Squil's Hero Shot before turning around to find three Octolings, one being an elite, aiming their weapons at the trio.

"Oh boy," the elite giggled as she smiled mischievously at them, "Lord Octavious is going to be glad to see all three of you...especially you two...Agent 3 and Agent 4."


	27. An Octarian's Plan Revealed

_Author's notes: hello everybody got another chapter for you._

 _Also the next Splatfest for North America has officially been announced to be Driving verses Flying (or Cars verses Planes as I've been hearing it be called.) Probably going to go with driving since I'm not a big fan of heights..._

 _Don't forget to review and leave any questions you have in the comments below._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 27: An Octarian's Plan Revealed**

Being dragged each by one of the Octolings Molly, Marlin and Squil were taken into a wide expansive area with a hard metal floor, "This looks a little like one of the boss arenas," Marlin commented as his orange eyes, which were no longer covered by his Octoling goggles, darted rapid glances around the area.

"Yeah...if the arena allowed for thousands of Octarians to watch you slowly die," Squil pointed out as he indicated all the balconies that dotted the circular walls. On which small groups of Octarians of various types could already be seen gathering.

"Well let's hope that the others are okay," looking forward Molly could see a tall male Octoling surrounded by a large group of Octolings. There was both males and females but Molly knew most of then had to be changed Inklings since many of them were a wide variety of colors ranging from red orange all the way to dark blue.

"My Lord Octavious!" the elite Octoling cried out giddly as she and the other two dumped the trio onto the ground, "we found Agent 3 and Agent 4 as well as one of Agent 3's little Inkling helpers."

"I'm an agent too you know," Squil growled as he tried to stand up.

"How dare you speak before Lord Octavious permits you to speak!" one of the Octolings snarled as she kicked Squil in the side, causing him to cry out in pain before he fell back down onto his knees.

"Octoola don't be so rough on the prisoners," Octavious stated flatly as he looked down on the three of them, "if you're not careful you might accidentally break them and we wouldn't want that."

"Of course not my lord," the Octoling named Octoola responded, nodding her head in respect as she did so.

"Monster!" Marlin cried out as he tried to lunge at Octavious only to have two pairs of arms pin him down, "you eight-limbed slimy bottom feeder with no respect or honor for proper code of conduct!"

"My, my Octarnick, you certainly have changed your attitude since last we met," Octavious replied while he watched Marlin struggle to free himself, "Before you would have been groveling at my feet for forgiveness if you were accused of being a traitor but now you seem to be excepting it wholeheartedly."

"That's because you turned me into your little puppet and you've been pulling at my strings, but that doesn't matter anymore. I know who I am now."

"Oh really? Well why don't you show us who you really are Octarnick...or rather Agent 3."

"But I..." he hesitated, "...I don't know how."

"It's okay Agent 3, just relax and let the pain flow through you," Molly said as she took a deep breath herself and allowed the flaring heat to rise through herself as she changed back into her Inkling form. A faint murmur from the above Octarians being the only indication that they had all seen her change.

"So...the myth about female orange Inklings having better control over their ability is true..." rubbing his chin Octavious contemplated the thought for several seconds, "...how interesting..."

"Agent 4 why did you do that?" Squil cried out in horror, "I thought your ability was supposed to be a secret?"

"I've lived all my life with secrets Agent 5 and I'm sick of it...besides it has never been was just my secret," she turned to look at Marlin, "everyone has a few secrets they wish to keep hidden but that doesn't mean they should."

Marlin smiled back, "You're right Agent 4. And it's time I revealed one of my own," he took a breath to calm himself as his eyes flashed orange. Wincing he clutched at his chest as he fell down to the floor gasping for breath.

Several minutes later he got back up but he no longer was an Octoling. Two of his tentacles had stayed long and were still tied at the back of his head in a ponytail but the others had retreated back and had changed from maroon colored to orange. His skin tone was only a few shades darker then Molly but unlike her he didn't have a splash of freckles on his face. His bright orange eyes now had black markings around them as the glow from him changing faded away until they were their normal orange color again, "and this time I'm not scared to reveal it."

A distant gasp rang through the air but otherwise there was silence at Octavious continued to look down at the three agents before speaking to the gathered crowd.

"You see my fellow brethren what has snuck in amongst us? Inklings have infiltrated our ranks and are trying to learn what we know so that they can learn how to defeat us."

"What? That's not true! You have given me orders and-"

"Silence Inkling!" Octoola barked at Marlin as she hit him in the back of his head, "my lord what do you plan on doing with these spies?"

"Splat them!" a distant voice called out.

"Torture them!" another one cried.

"Torture them and then splat them!"

Various other shouts rang out before Octavious held out his hands and all the Octarians fell silent, "The Inklings need to be taught that it's not nice to snoop around where they aren't wanted."

A large amount of cheering erupted from the crowd before he held up his hands for silence again, "Like my father used to say 'if you messed with fire you're bound to be burned' the most fitting thing would be to have them forced to swim in Octarian ink until the ink either poisons them to death or burns their very skin into nothing but seeing as two of them have the dreaded Changeling ability they'll have immunity to our ink now. Now I must come up with a different punishment for them."

"Perhaps it would be best if we simply drowned them and be done with it my Lord Octavious," one of the three Octolings suggested as she rolled her eyes at the steadily growing displeasure and impatience from the crowd.

An idea suddenly formed into Molly's mind, "Oh please no, not water! I'm deathly afraid of the substance," she made like she was trying to escape only to be pinned down by the third Octoling that wasn't holding down Marlin, "please, I'll take any punishment but that!"

A smile crept onto Octavious' face as he leaned forward to whisper to her, "You're scared of water that bad Inkling?" the smile grew wider as he stood up straight again, "It has been decided. Their punishment will be to be drowned in water. I'll carry it out myself to make certain of no possible intervention can occur."

A sound of disappointment traveled through the crowd as they slowly wandered off to go back to doing whatever they had been doing before. After several minutes only the three Inklings, Octavious, and the three other Octolings were the only ones left standing there.

"Let's go girls," Octavious told the three Octolings as he walked towards a door that was labeled with some form of warning in Takoyakese on it. Whatever it had said specifically Molly never found out because Octavious flung it open and revealed a dimly lit corridor with stone walls, "I would like to get this done and over with."

"Come on Inklings," the elite, Octoola, snarled as she grabbed the back of Squil's Hero and started to drag him. Molly and Marlin got up and started to follow Octavious before the other two Octolings could force them to move.

It didn't take long for Molly to figure out that they were going underground. Every step made her colder and bumps started to form on her arms as she shivered. After ten minutes the slope they were walking down turned into stone steps before it eventually leveled out and widened into a large cavern. The sound of running water easily reaching the ears of Molly, Marlin and Squil.

Octavious turned around to look at the three female Octolings, "Octoola, Octillia and Octeekio...you can leave now."

"But my Lord Octavious what about the Inklings? Surely you must want..."

"Are you doubting my capabilities of handling a couple of little kids?" Octavious asked as he raised an eyebrow at them.

"Oh, no sir," Octeekio, the youngest of the three, said as she frantically waved her hands in front of herself in panic, "if you don't need our help we'll just go back to patrol," quicker than anybody could say the word 'kraken' she grabbed hold of an arm from each of the two other Octolings and half led, half dragged them back up the steps.

"You know what Octavious?" Marlin commented after the three Octolings had left, "I've just came up with another name for you...big fat octopus jerk!"

"Oh please Agent 3," Octavious rolled his eyes at him, "I'm sure you could come up with something far more colorful if you wanted to."

"You knew he was Agent 3 all along, didn't you?" Squil spat.

"Yes, I did," he turned to face him and glowered down at him with his bright green eyes, which faintly glowed in the half light, "ever since I found out about the Changeling ability I knew that if such an ability exist that it could lead to victory for the Octarians...something my father was never able to accomplish when he was on the throne."

"So you kidnapped him...and Agent 2."

"Agent 2 was at first simply bait to convince that old coot Cuttlefish to send out Agent 3," he then smiled evilly at Marlin who continued to glare at him, "and like a squid to a piece of fish you came running."

"And the fact that I had lost my memories made it all the more enjoyable for you."

"Not really Agent 3, it simply made it easier for you to obey me when you thought you were an Octoling."

"What are you planning to do with us Octavious?" Squil demanded.

"Funny you should ask young blue Inkling, " he sneered as he looked down at him, "I honestly only need one orange to help perfect my Changeling serum the other one would be just a mere nuisance which I plan to get rid of right now," he then suddenly grabbed Squil by his shoulders and lifted him up off the ground, "as for you I have no need for a blue Inkling. I've heard they can have very powerful abilities just like some of the other colors but you're past your chance of obtaining it and thus past your chance of being useful to me," he took a step toward the water in the water channel.

"No! Don't kill him!" rushing at them Molly changed into her Octoling form and raised her fist to punched him. Quicker then her eyes could register though he had let go of Squil and now had both hands around her throat. She quickly shifted back into her Inkling form.

"You know it's a pity you two are siblings. Otherwise I would keep you and see if I can get a few more orange Inklings from you."

She bared her fangs at him and let out a strangled hiss at his comment.

"Because of this fact, not to mention you attitude problems, you are really nothing more then a waste of my time...and when I find things that waste my time I get rid of them," using all of his strength he threw her up into the air.

Flying through the air Molly only had a few seconds to see where she was going before going in, head first, to the freezing cold water in the water channel.

Almost instinctively she held her breath as she sunk down in the murky water, her orange tentacles floating up at the sides of her head as she did so. Once she had ended up on the muddy floor of the channel she swam over to underneath the wooden dock where she broke the water's surface. Loud screams of horror being the first thing she heard once she had her head above the water.

"Agent 4!" the sound of feet scuffling over the wood immediately met Molly's ears, "Let me go I have to save her!"

"No! Don't Agent 3!" Squil nearly screamed as more sounds of struggle could be heard, "you go in that water you'll drown!"

"He's right Agent 3," Octavious said, "besides I still need you."

"I'll never obey you Octavious!"

"Never thought you would, but you don't have to be willing to be of any use to me. Your unique orange colored ink is really all I need of you."

"You'll never use me for you own personal gain!"

"Well then I'm sad to say that is where you are wrong Agent 3," he took a step towards the two, "there is more than one way to skin a catfish."

"Not a step closer Octo-jerk!" stated Squil as Molly assumed he stood in front of Marlin.

"Do you really think you can stop me blue Inkling?" Octavious snorted.

"Maybe not, but I certainly can try!" he cried out defiantly.

"Well then, I guess I ought to give you a fighting chance. Come on then Inkling, come at me."

Swimming out from under the dock Molly quickly tried to climb back up onto the shore but slipped back down several times due to how slick the muddy embankments were. Meanwhile she could hear the sounds of punches and grunts in pain as she desperately tried to get out of the water.

After what felt like forever she was finally able to claw her way up the embankment, panting heavily she looked up to see Squil and Octavious grappling together on the ground while hisses, growls, snarls and grunts of pain came from the two of them. A few times they even briefly shifted into a blue squid and maroon octopus which made their previous sounds into squeaks for a minute or two before they shifted back into their humanoid forms.

Eventually Octavious was able to grab hold of one of Squil's arms and forced it behind his back with a sickening sound. Screaming loudly Squil tried to get away from Octavious' grasp only to have him pull his arm up farther into the painful position. Eventually he stopped screaming but he continued to whimper as Octavious kept his arm in that position.

"Even without bones this is painful isn't it?" Octavious smirked as he jerked Squil's arm upwards suddenly which made him yelp, "I told you Inkling...you can't stop me," letting him go suddenly Squil fell to the ground. Letting out a faint moan he layer there on the ground, not moving.

"Squil!" Ignoring the startled expression on Marlin she ran over and kneeled down next to Squil. Lifting his head up she was able to see that he had fallen unconscious from the pain, a trickle of dark colored blood coming out of the corner of his mouth.

"You've hurt Squil," Molly whispered under her breath as hot angry tears appeared at the corners of her eyes.

"Impossible! How are you alive!" Octavious snapped, clearly irritated.

"I'm pretty hard to kill," she answered as she stood up, shifting into her human form as she did so but the glow of her eyes stayed bright, "plus there's the fact that I've been taught how to swim."

"Whatever the reason you'll regret getting involved in this Agent 4!"

"We shall see about that!" she shouted, holding her position.

Pulling out a small ink weapon Octavious quickly aimed it at her but before the ink could touch her Molly shifted again into an Octoling. The ink hit her full in the face but instead of burning her skin it simply slid off her face like normal ink would in a Turf War, "that won't work on me Octavious."

Gritting his fangs he growled low in his throat, "then I guess I'll just have to get creative then," he then rushed over and went to grab for her throat again.

This time though she was ready and quickly sidestepped him, causing him to nearly fall on his face before he caught himself, "What...? But how?"

"I get it now why you seem to move so quickly. You Octolings perceive things a lot faster then Inklings do," faster the a blink of an eye she had moved several feet to end up next to him, "which allows you to see things before we could and take advantage of it."

"And now you know why we consider your race so weak."

"We might not have this ability, and most of us Inklings might never get an ability but there is something every Inkling has and holds close to their heart."

"And what on Terra could that be?"

"Determination, particularly when it comes to dealing with threats such as you!" spinning on her heel she used one of her legs to knock him down to the ground. He quickly got back up but she punched him in the gut and caused him to reel backwards. After he had recovered he launched himself at her and the two of them rolled several times on the ground. Only stopping just a few steps away from the edge of the dock. Octavious on top of her and pinning her on the wooden boards.

"You're pretty good...for an Inkling," he panted.

"Funny...you're not the first one to tell me that!" Molly spat.

"It's a shame that I have to kill you. You would certainly make a formidable elite Octoling."

"We'll see about that Octavious," suddenly she was the one on top of him. Growling she allowed herself to change back into her Inkling form but her eyes were still glowing. By this point the two of them were nearly at the edge of the dock, "any last words Octarian scum?"

"I've heard what you did to Agent 3 and I know for a fact that you wouldn't dare kill me," he sneered at her. He tried to get up but she kept him down. Most of his energy having been used up with fighting both her and Squil had made him too weak to force her off him.

"Wanna bet?" forcing them into another roll she caused them to nearly to go over the edge of the dock. He yelped as he clawed at the wooden boards to prevent himself from falling, fear entering into his eyes.

Molly smiled at his reaction, "Still don't believe me?"

"Agent 4! Stop this!" Marlin cried out, "You've clearly won and he'll get the punishment he deserves."

"If you honestly think I'm going to live in a snow globe like my pathetic father then you are greatly mistaken," Octavious declared, "I would rather die then face that kind of humiliation!"

"That can be arranged Octavious," Molly snarled at him before making them roll one more time, letting go at the last second to grab the dock to prevent herself from going down as well.

The loud splash followed by a screech of pure terror before silence was the only indication she had received of the young lord Octoling's demise since she didn't even bother watching him go down into the water. Climbing up onto her feet she walked away from the dock towards Marlin and Squil who was still past out.

"Molly what on Terra did you do that for?! We needed him alive to question him!"

"I simply was granting him his wish," she answered with a scowl.

"What...Molly when I asked you to just kill me you refused what changed?"

"He would have killed Squil and used you for his malicious plans. You should be grateful I took him out."

He shook his head in disbelief at her, "Why are you...?" Suddenly he noticed that her eyes were still glowing bright orange, "Molly, your ability I think is out of control. You need to snap out of it."

"I have complete control over my ability Marin," she growled, "and nobody is going to tell me otherwise."

"Are you even listening to yourself Mol-"

"Shut up!" she screeched as she grabbed a piece of wood and raised it over her head like she would if it was her Inkbrush, "I told you I don't need help!"

"Not even from me Molly?"

She froze and looked over to her right to see Squil get up to his feet with a bit of effort. Walking over to her he gave her a wry smile, "Whoever you are I want to give me back my Molly."

"I am Molly," she answered him through gritted fangs.

"No you aren't. My Molly is kind and sensitive to the feelings of others and would never have killed someone in spite, you on the other hand are cold hearted and if I didn't know better it almost looked like you found a great amount of pleasure in killing Octavious."

"He was a threat to us all!"

"No he wasn't, but you might be if don't wake up Molly."

"I-I uh..." uncertainty flickered over her face as she slowly lowered the wooden board before letting it drop to the floor with a loud clatter. The glow of her eyes faded to nothing as her posture became less hostile. She suddenly became very unsteady on her feet, "Squil...?" her eyes rolling up into her head as she fell forward into Squil's arms unconscious.

* * *

Blinking several times at the sudden bright light Molly groaned as she slowly sat up from her leaning position up against the shack in Octo Valley, "What? How on Terra did-"

"...Did you get here?" looking up she saw it was Marlin walking towards her. No longer wearing his Octoling clothes and armor but in stead a black t-shirt and a backwards facing cap with red shoes, "after you past out the others finally found us. They had found all the imprisoned Inklings that hadn't been changed yet and after equipping them all with weapons they were able to take down any Octarian forces that tried to stop them."

"But what about the ones that had already been turned?"

"Remember that clear liquid that Callie forced Marie to drink? Her scientist friend was able to create a formula to reverse the affects of the Changeling serum Octavious had made and she was able to use this to change a lot of the Inklings back to normal. Any left that were still Octolings after she ran out of what she had with her they brought here to be treated."

"So the Inklings..."

He smiled, "No OctoInklings exist anymore, the Octarians who escape have gone into the deeper kettle domes, hopefully they will stay there for awhile, and as far as we can tell all knowledge on the Changeling serum died with Octavious," he smile suddenly disappeared, "Molly...do you even remember what..."

"What happened to me? Sadly yes," she looked down at her hands, all the memories of the events before she past out returning to her in giant waves, "I let myself lose control and now I've killed someone because of it."

"It's not your fault Molly."

"Yes it is," she insisted as she looked up at him, "it was my ability and it was my lack of control that allowed my anger to take over. If it weren't for Squil I might have hurt you."

"But you didn't hurt me and you don't really think you would have...did you?"

"I don't know," she wailed as she pulled her knees up to her chest and started to sob, "I never want to be like that ever again."

"I'm sure it was a one time thing Molly," he reached down and rubbed one of her shoulders, "you have far better control over your ability then I do and you snapped out of it unlike I did."

"You had amnesia Marin. It's not the same thing."

"Maybe...or maybe I didn't want to remember all the horrible things I have done," he stood back up, "do me a favor sis and try not to dwell on the past, otherwise you might have a hard time going forward into the future," he then walked over to where Whark, Callie and Marie could be seen talking to Captain Cuttlefish.

Standing up she walked away from the shack, while wiping tears off her face, and started to wander aimlessly around Octo Valley. After walking for about ten minutes she walked around a scraggly tree to find Squil leaning up against it, "Oh Squil! I'm sorry I didn't..."

"No its okay Molly," he insisted, "actually I'm glad to see that you're awake."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," he patted a spot next to him. She sat down and leaned up against his left shoulder and he reached over and rubbed the area behind Molly's right ear, causing her to start purring. Still purring she reached up to the back of his neck and started to scratch it, making him purr as well. His deeper one nicely complimenting her higher pitched one. After doing this for at least thirty seconds the two of them stopped and sat in silence for several minutes.

"Squil?" Molly finally said, breaking the silence.

"Yes Molly?"

"Why did you stand in front of me like that? I could have hurt you."

"I knew you wouldn't."

"How could you be so sure?"

"Because I love you Molly and part of that is having trust in the one you loved. If you love me just as much I knew that would protect me."

"But what if you were wrong?"

"Then I would have had no more reasons to live and would have welcomed death. Which would have been far gentler then living knowing I had lost you forever."

"Don't talk like that Squil!" she snuggled deeper into his shoulder like a child hiding from something that scared it, "let's just let the past stay in the past."

"Alright Molly...I won't bring it up again."

She looked up at him, "Promise?"

"Cross my hearts and hope I never get splatted," he whispered into her ear as he did the familiar gesture on his chest. A smile pulling the corners of his mouth, "I love you Mollinda Colorian."

"I love you too Squil Aquatica," she answered him as they stared up at the fake sun and clouds in the pale blue artificial sky of Octo Valley.


	28. Returning Visions and a Proposal

_Author's notes: Anybody think that was the end? Well its not...oh no I've got plenty more in store for you guys..._

 _Before we begin I just got to say a thank you to all the authors involved in the Shared Universe Project for letting me join the team. It's been loads of fun and I can't wait to see where we'll take this._

 _Now some are you are probably wondering how my story is connected to the others, (or you might not be,) these questions will finally be answered..._

 _Enjoy..._

 _(Please note that the following chapter begins approximately four years after the events in the last chapter but will continue mostly at a normal rate of time for future chapters. I apologize for the time jump (again,) in advance.)_

 **Chapter 28: Returning Visions and a Proposal**

Opening her eyes Molly was somewhat surprised to find an almost forgotten scene. A dark place with long glowing cracks crisscrossing across the equally black colored ground. Some very far away from other cracks while others, particularly two, seemed very close to each other...almost touching...

" _What...? No way, it can't be..._ " quickly looking down she gasped internally as she saw that she was wearing her Hero Suit, something of which she had to modify multiple times since she had grown a good foot or so in height, as well as adding new technological additions to it. One of which was a waterproof coating to allow her to swim in it without any worry of damaging any of the internal wiring for her radio transmitter or any of her other electronic equipment.

Farther investigation of her person bought her to discover her pilot goggles on her head and her Hero Brush strapped to her back in its sheath, " _I'm back here? But why and why after so long..._ "

" _Oh, hi again, Molly. May I say this place is just...strange...and it has been a while since we last met...almost a month to be exact..._ "

" _Ack!_ " Molly yelped as she quickly turned around to find Ty standing behind her. Unlike the last two times though he was wearing a Hero Suit similar to her own as well what appeared to be a sword on his back. Other then that he surprisingly enough looked the same, " _Ty? You're here too? And what do you mean its been a month?_ "

" _It's been a month for me,_ " he answered as he shrugged. If he was surprised to see her at least as old as he was he wasn't showing it, " _Anyways, I might as well fill you in on some things..._ " suddenly he stopped and slightly tilted his head like he was listening to something. He refocused on her several seconds later, " _...Or we can have Peace Walker do it..._ "

" _Ty...how can you be so casual about the fact that I haven't seen you in four years and yet you..._ " she started to say when suddenly it dawned on her what he had just said " _...wait, Peace Walker? It's here?_ " her eyes flash orange as she reaches over her head for her Hero Brush, which was currently in its staff form.

" _Calm down...you will only scare it..._ " he quickly said as he held out his hand towards her, causing her to pause.

Seconds later the giant Peace Walker, which was gold, landed right in front of the two of them.

" _Being identified...name: Mollinda Colorian...defense system offline!_ " it said loudly before releasing a string of static, " _sorry about my sudden entrance._ "

" _I uh..._ " Molly responded awkwardly as a faint blush crossed her face, " _sorry about that...I thought you were going to kill us or something, but if Ty trusts you I suppose I can trust you too._ " She then lowered her arm back down to her side as a question suddenly came to her mind, " _Wait...how do you know my name...particularly my last name?_ "

" _Um...Molly...that's also my last name..._ " Ty said as a look of shock crossed over his face.

" _What? Really? But how is that possible? There are no yellow Inklings in my family..._ " Molly cried out as the two of them continued to look at each other for several seconds.

" _Have you two ever heard of the Dimensional Sibling theorem?_ " Peace Walker's voice rumbled, " _because that is what you two are._ "

Molly's eyes widened as she looked over at Ty whose focus was back on the Peace Walker. Multiple thoughts running through her head about all the theories she had heard about over the years about the possibility of multiple dimensions and multiple versions of the same person; dimensional siblings or "Analogs" being the regularly used term for it. If Ty really was her in another dimension then how many similarities did they have with each other...

She became so deep in thought that she nearly didn't hear Ty speaking to the Peace Walker again, " _So why did you call us here?_ "

" _Because Molly has completed her major mission: Prevent either species' extinction. Ty Colorian, your mission is on a scale over 25 times as large as Molly's._ " Peace Walker stated, which caused a look of worry to cross over Ty's face.

" _Um...pardon me for not understanding...but if the mission I had was complete, then what am I doing here? What can I do to help someone that doesn't even live in the same universe as I do?_ " Molly asked as she wondered what could be worst than what she went through four years ago. She had nearly lost control of her ability that day and it had made her weary of going too far ever since.

" _The same method to get you two here. Ty may know about a nearby Peace Walker in his universe, am I correct?_ "

" _Yes, but..._ " Ty started to say, realization of something dawning on him seconds later, " _OH! I know what you are trying to do..._ "

" _In any case, this is where you and others come in, Molly,_ " the Peace Walker turned to her, " _because of your outstanding performance, as well as the rest of the agents, I have chosen you and your agents to assist Ty as much as possible. The scale of his situation has risen to a level of urgency high enough to require additional help._ "

" _The situation has risen to a level similar to a time the humans called World War II, specifically the time where Germany enslaved its own - or the percentile of the population that were considered traitors - into work camps, only to be killed later._ "

" _This event was labeled as "The Holocaust". The situation is similar, only that the oppressed are the Octolings. Ty, with the help of others, has already evacuated many of the work camps. The upcoming war however will need more assistance to be successful._ "

Molly briefly muttered under her breath, " _Holocaust...Lily mentioned this event before to me in my history lessons...and if it was as bad as she said for Landdwell- err, I mean humans then..._ " she looks back up at the giant machine, " _Peace Walker, I appreciate the praise you have given me and my fellow agents for what happened in my universe but what can an orange Inkling with a strange ability and her three comrades do to help in a world that could possibly be utterly foreign to us?_ "

" _Through a little bit of time and enough material, you and your fellow agents can make the scale tip in your favor. Not only will skills and abilities change it up, but you have the tactical advantage of full control of your ability. Team work will also aid you and others in changing the tides._ " Peace Walker explained to her, " _Not to mention that You, Ty, and Ty's wife are all technological geniuses..._ "

Ty made a quick coughing sound, " _What? Oh wait..._ " he looked more throughly at her Hero Suit, particularly at the waterproof coating on it, " _nice work on those upgrades._ "

" _Thanks, Ty, but honestly, this I would say is my greatest invention yet!_ " reaching behind her back she pull out her Hero Brush. Flipping the switch on the handle she quickly showed it's brush form before flipping the switch again and putting it back into staff form, " _this is what I call a Hero Brush. I honestly find brushes come more naturally to me to handle than guns or normal rollers, so basing it on the technology used in the Hero Shot I created this._ "

" _Nice. I still prefer my standard N'ZAP '89, and my sword..._ " as he says this he reaches behind his own back and un-sheaths an intricately decorated sword, " _From what I can figure out, some of these parts extend, but I don't know how to activate it...other than that, it is very good at cutting through many things, thanks to the reduced surface area of the blade via the engravings. It is also perfectly balanced, so it's easier to swing...but I know there is more to it than what I know right now..._ "

" _Cool,_ " Molly says as she puts her staff back into its sheath, " _part of the reason I gave the Hero Brush two forms was so that if I can't use ink I can still fight with it._ "

" _Yeah, good to have backup. Then again..._ " putting his own weapon away he flicked one of his wrists and a several inch long spine comes out of a wrist guard in his Hero Suit, looking like a dagger to Molly at first glance, " _I have backups too...but you obviously went with your strengths better than I did. It took me a while to get used to an evasive fighting style..._ "

" _Anyways..._ " Peace Walker broke in, causing them both to look at it again, " _Molly Colorian, Aka: Agent 4, should you accept my mission for you, come and find my representative. Bring at least 3 others,_ " it then turns to face Ty, " _...and Ty Colorian, Aka: Archangel, no nukes._ "

" _Wasn't planning on it,_ " he answered it.

" _Nukes?_ " Molly quickly turns to face him directly, worry forming in the tone of her voice, " _What is it talking about?_ "

" _Missiles I don't intend on using..._ " he said, " _ever..._ "

The bright glow from the cracks suddenly get far brighter, causing the two of them to go blind from the light.

" _I hope we meet again..._ " was the last thing Molly heard from the Peace Walker before waking up in her bed.

"Ugh...I feel like I got beaten up by a dozen Octarians and miraculously survived," she groaned as she rubbed several areas on her body that were especially sore. Slowly getting out of her bed she stretched, slightly relieving the soreness, but not by much.

Walking over to the bathroom she undid the band she used to tie up her tentacles when she was asleep so that she wouldn't accidentally roll over them in her sleep and let them fall down to their full length, which was just past her waist. The tips having taking on a bright yellow orange color over the years instead of turning dark like most Inkling's tentacles did. Her older brother's tentacles had done the same thing but his looked definitely more orange then hers did. Hers nearing almost yellow in color.

"Yellow tentacles..." she whispered to herself as she continued to look at her reflection in the mirror over the sink, "perhaps there really is more similarities between us than we previously thought..."

A loud buzzing coming from the top of her dresser in her bedroom brought her back to the present. Quickly walking back out of the bathroom she just had enough time to read the name on the pager before it stopped, "Oh no...Criss...what have you done this time?" Quickly changing clothes she grabbed her agent communicator, pager, and white lab jacket as she walked out of the door of her apartment.

* * *

"I'm really sorry about making you come in so early," Criss, the new intern, apologized for the forth time since Molly had arrived as she bowed her bright green head in shame.

"No Criss, it's okay...I was already awake anyway when you paged me," readjusting some of the valves the once loud hiss she had been hearing since she arrived turned into a quiet whisper before disappearing completely, "there we go, the pressure has been stabilized again."

"So it's fine now?"

"Appears to be," glancing over the other gauges she tried to see if any of the rest of the machinery was misbehaving, "it's a good thing you turned the system off when you did otherwise it might have compromised the pipeworks."

"What? Are you saying Criss tried blow up the whole lab?" Cean asked as he walked into the room. Despite having been a very good Turf War player like his older brother Whark Cean had decided to follow a career in the lab like Molly had rather then going into the major leagues. He held a cup of something that smell a lot like coffee in one of his hands and his lab coat was slung over his shoulder.

"No she did not Cean. She shut the system down and contacted me so I could take a look at it," she lightly tapped one of the pipes which caused a ringing sound to resonate in the air, "now that I've readjusted the pressure we can start the system back up."

"Alright," opening a box on the wall Criss pressed the green button in it and the mechanical whir of the machinery filled the room.

"Sweet! It's working again!" Criss nearly jumped into the air in glee as she wrapped her arms around Molly, "thank you so much for helping me not get in trouble."

"Um...you're welcome...?" she slowly pulled herself free from the sixteen year old and smoothed her lab coat back down, "Criss you're not going to be sent away for a mechanical failure, you know that right?"

"As far as you know Molly," Cean commented as he took a sip from his drink.

She glared at him, "don't you have something better to do then make the interns even more rattled than they already are?"

"I, um...yeah I do..." blushing faintly he turned around and walked out of the room.

"How come he listens to you and no one else?" Criss asked.

"I saved him from getting seriously hurt when we were younger and helped him reunite with his brother," Molly answered, "now I'm pretty sure you have things to go do as well."

"Yes Ms. Colorian," bobbing her head in respect Criss shuffled passed her and out as well.

Sighing Molly took one last glance around herself before walking out of the room herself.

The main floor of the lab was filled with countless machines that each did varying tasks to help with the different research the lab did, from genetics and biochemistry all the way to engineering and energy alternatives. Molly specifically worked in the genetic research department but many of the other employees knew her background with fixing technology so when something went wrong with the machines she was usually the first one anybody contacted. Hence the reason she kept her pager near her or on her person.

Stepping into her personal office she lowered the blinds on the windows before flopping into her chair behind her desk with a groan. The soreness from that morning still effecting her, "could visiting that place have caused this?" she mumbled as she rubbed her temples with her fingertips.

"Having a bad morning Molly?"

"Wah!" Molly nearly fell backwards in her chair before she caught herself, "Squil!? How on Terra did you get in here?! The door is locked!"

"The janitor let me in," he answered as he stepped out of the corner he had been hiding in. A frown formed on his face, "aren't you glad to see me?"

"Wha...no of course I'm glad to see you Squil, it's just that..." she sighed before continuing, "...a lot of stuff has been lately."

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure you'll understand."

"Try me," he said as he folded his arms in front of his chest.

Looking up into his sapphire blue eyes Molly suddenly realized they were the same color as Ty Colorian's eyes. But unlike his Squil's eyes could just as quickly turn cold as his anger boiled up as they could be gentle.

She shook her head to get thoughts of the Peace Walker and Ty out of her head, "it's nothing important to worry yourself about Squil. Mildly curious though why are you here anyway? If my boss saw you in the lab he'd freak and I could get fired."

"Funny you should ask Molly. There's something I've been meaning to do for awhile now..." he pulled a small box out of a pocket in the leather jacket he was wearing.

"Squil...my birthday was two months ago."

"Molly..." he blushed, "...it's not a birthday present..."

"Then what are you...?" before she could finish her question he flipped the top of the box open to reveal a silver ring with a braided band and a pearl in the center that looked like it was nestled amongst strands of silver seaweed.

Her eyes widened, "Squil...are you...?"

"Yes I am," he stated as he went down on one knee in front of her and grabbed hold of her hand, "Mollinda Sia Colorian...will you marry me?"

"I...uh..." she hesitated as a her face turned bright red, "...yes..."

"What?" he looked up, "seriously? You're not mad at me for making you wait or anythi-" he never finished due to Molly kissing him. The two of them wrapping each other into one another's embrace.

After several minutes she pulled away and looked him straight in the eye, "of course I'm mad you took this long to gather the courage to ask me but I'm glad you finally did," holding out her hand she allowed him to place the ring on her finger, twisting it slightly so that the pearl was facing directly up at her, "where on Terra did you find a ring with my birthstone?"

"It wasn't easy, nor was it cheap," he admitted, "it took saving up for half a year to get enough to buy it and then the store's owner was a haughty old hermit crab who tried to-" she stopped him again with another kiss, "...what did I do that time?"

"You were rambling Squil...you don't do rambling very well."

"Oh..."

Two series of loud beeps chirped in chorus with each other from Molly's lab coat and Squil's leather jacket as the pair frowned.

"Oh great squid above us! What on Terra could Callie want!" Molly grumbled as she pulled her wrist communicator out and turned the alert off.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he responded as he did the same with his communicator.

She sighed, "we better go see what she wants, but Squil...should we tell them?"

"Tell who and tell them what?"

"Ploosh, Inka, Callie and Marie and tell them we're engaged."

"Do you want them to know?"

"I'm not sure..."

"Then it's probably best if we don't...at least not yet," he held out his hand.

Pulling the ring off her finger she handed it back to him and he slipped it back into the box which went back into his pocket, "When you're ready Molly, you know where it is."

She nodded. Taking his hand in hers they walked out of the office, ignoring all the stares the pair were getting as they walked through the lab to head out the door.


	29. Dreams Become Reality

_Author's notes: Got another chapter for you guys! Hope you like it._

 _ **From Etriuswimbleton:**_ _Wait what? He chose octarnick even when he knows he's a bit jumpy also for the fact he loses his memory from time to time?_

 _What does octarnick look like? I dont see any recent male octolings (justified from the line "clenching his fist") in splatoon before. Only the various octarians. And I dont believe they have hands..._

 _ **Author:**_ _Probably by the time you read this you'll understand why Octavious chose Octarnick so..._

 _And yeah I've been meaning to try drawing my interpretation of a male Octoling but haven't had the time, (if I do it will probably be posted on my Tumblr page.) Octavious is also a male Octoling if any of the rest of you hadn't caught on, (probably not the case but just to be on the safe side...)_

 _Also that was an old music video they watched, not a current one and I'm pretty sure I never said they had black and white ink, (although anybody who has read Tehreign's random shenanigans would have noticed the color gray is mentioned.)_

 _ **From Guest:**_ _What side did you pick for the Cars vs Planes Splatfest?_

 _ **Author:**_ _Whoops! I don't normally forget to say which team I'm on when it's Splatfest that weekend but I guess I did in last chapter. I chose Cars and I believe I got like 10 snails, (haven't had a whole lot of time to play the last two Splatfests...)_

 _As usual your reviews and questions are always welcome here._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 29: Dreams Become Reality**

"Molly! Squil! You're here!" Callie cried out as she wrapped her arms around the two, "it feels like it's been too long since we last saw each other."

"Cal...we saw each other only four months ago whe-" Molly froze mid-sentance as she saw sadness enter into Callie's golden eyes, "...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to bring up..."

"No, its alright Molly," Callie quickly insisted, "Both me and Marie really do miss Gramps a lot still but I'm sure he's in a better place now. I'm doing okay but I would be careful not to say anything around Marie. Since she lived with him longer than I did she considered him more as her father."

"We'll try to keep that in mind," Squil said as he looked around Octo Valley, "so you mind telling us why you contacted us?"

"I will...once the other agents show up."

"Others?" Molly's eyes widened, "you don't mean...?"

"Thought you wouldn't see me now did you...sis?"

"Marin!" turning around quickly she quickly pulled him into a hug, "Dude! I haven't seen you in over a year."

"I've been busy and would you please stop calling me Marin Molly...you know I hate it when you do that!"

"So you name makes you sound like a girl, big deal Agent 3 it doesn't sound that bad," Callie commented with a shrug.

"You're not the one who was stuck with the consequences of having such a name for 13 years of my life. There's a reason why I changed it to 'Marlin'."

"Oh please tell me we are not bringing up this topic again? This is really starting to get old..."

The foursome turned to see a familiar pair of Inklings coming over from the sewer grate entrance. One being a female purple Inkling while the other was a male green Inkling, "Hey! I can totally understand my cousin's opinion on the matter Inka."

"Yes...but that doesn't mean we need to talk about it all the time," she insisted.

"Hey Ploosh, Inka, how's life been?"

"Nothing too splatacular I must say Molly," Inka sighed, "I gotta say it used to be much more fun when we were all active agents but I'm in college, you're working at the labs and both of you boys are regularly busy with Major League Turf Wars."

"It does pay the rent though," Ploosh pointed out.

"Yes...but I don't see you that often now Ploosh," Inka pouted slightly.

"True...but that doesn't stop me from thinking about you whenever I get the chance," he planted a quick kiss on her lips, causing her to blush faintly.

Marlin groaned as he shook his head at the two of them. The fact that Ploosh and Inka had been dating for a solid two years now still surprising the rest of them considering Inka and Ploosh had never particularly liked each other when they were kids.

"That aside though I really would like to know why we are all here?" Squil quickly stated as he tried to ignore Ploosh's antics towards Inka.

"Funny you should ask that Squil but first I need to introduce you to two people..." as she said this a male Octoling and a female Octoling walked over to them from behind the shack, "This is Octyler and Octatia. These two came to me and Marie late last night and they stated they had come in peace."

"It's a pleasure to meet you two," Molly stated as she shook both of their hands, "I understand that our two races have been at great strains with each other for many generations but I hope that someday Octarians and Inkling can be at peace with each other."

"You're Agent 4 aren't you?" Octatia smiled, "many of us Octolings have heard about you and your teams missions."

"Thank you Octatia but I really would prefer you calling me Molly Colorian or just Molly. I only go by Agent 4 when on mission."

"Molly than Ms. Colorian, and please you can call me Tia and him Tyler. The 'Oct' beginning in our names is an ancient naming tradition. In normal occasions we often take the first part off."

"Very well...Tia and Tyler."

Octyler simply nodded his head at her.

"Well what brings you two to seek out the Squidbeak Splatoon?" Squil asked.

"We and a small group of Octarians were exploring an area in one of the lesser known domes when we came across something no Octarian probably has ever seen. We're not sure whether it is something left behind by Landdwellers, or by some other ancient race but we fear it could potentially be dangerous if it were to end up in the wrong hands."

"What would you like us to do?" Inka asked as she finally pulled away from Ploosh.

"We were wondering if you agents could perhaps examine it to see if our fears are true."

"And if your fears are true what do you want us to do?"

"We would like you to destroy it. Octavious might be gone but that doesn't mean someone might not try to complete what he had started."

Molly shuddered. Killing Octavious the way she'd had scared her as a kid and simply thinking about it still on occasion made fear grip her heart even worse then when she still had little control over her Changeling ability.

Squil must have felt her shake because it was then that he reached for her hand and squeezed it tightly. Giving her the courage to speak, "If that is what you wish than the Squidbeak Splatoon will check out this strange object for you."

"Thank you Molly Colorian," Octyler finally spoke in a gruff voice, "We will lead you and your team to the object but the journey is long and it will be nightfall if we leave now."

"Then will head out at dawn tomorrow than, which will give me and the rest of the Squidbeak Splatoon time to prepare."

"Very well...we'll withdraw back to the domes until dawn. Until then, goodbye Molly Colorian," the pair then backed away a few steps before turning away and towards one of the kettle entrances.

"Well...they're certainly a cheerful pair right Marlin?" Ploosh said before turning and seeing that Marlin's face had turned pale, "Hey dude, you okay?"

"Um, yes...I'm fine," he answered as he shook his head. He then turned back to Molly, "hey sis! Can I talk to you?"

"Yes of course," letting go of Squil's hand she followed him behind the shack.

"Oh Molly, you've sure have grown since last we met."

"I've only gain an inch in the last year Marin."

He cringed at her use of his real name, "Well I still rest my case...Sia."

She glared, "You wouldn't dare start calling me that?"

"It is your name," a playful smile on his lips, "I won't call you Sia if you stop calling me Marin."

"You know if mom found out..."

"She won't...I won't let her find out."

Seeing that this was getting her nowhere she quickly changed tactic, "Where have you been this whole time."

"Traveling."

"That's not an answer Marlin."

"I needed time to think."

"For a whole year?"

"I've had a lot of things on my mind."

"But none of your brother or sister or even your mom? She's been worried about you."

"Well you can tell her I'm fine the next chance you get."

"You're leaving again? When?"

"Tomorrow after the mission. I'm not going with you guys but I'll be rooting for you four here."

"You can't just show back up here only to just leave again."

"Yes I can...I'm 21 Molly, not a teenager. I can make my own decisions now."

"Is it because of those Octolings? Ever since the death of Octavious the Octarians-"

"It's not because they're Octarians Molly!" he snapped, causing her to flinch, "It's...some other reason..."

Her eyes suddenly widened, "Marlin...do you know them?"

"Tia...was my girlfriend when I was Octarnick. At first she was my commanding officer but it turned into more as we continued to interact with each other. We had dated a whole year before you found me again as Octarnick when you were 15."

"Does she recognize you?"

"No idea," he sighed while looking down at his shoes, "and even if she did what does it matter? She's an Octoling and I'm an Inkling."

"Why does that matter Marlin?"

"Wha...?! Molly, we are not of the same species!"

"Who says that matters?"

"Molly..." his face started to turn bright red, "...it would never work out!" his anger then deflated just a quickly as it had flared up, "Don't you understand?."

"Yes I do Marlin..." she looked down at her feet as she released a slightly skaky breath before looking back up at him again, "is this what you wanted to tell me? That because you're a coward and can't handle your feelings it may be another whole year or so before we see you again?"

He cringed at her words like they were Octarian ink burning his skin but his expression otherwise didn't change, "you have no idea how much this has tormented me Molly over the last four years," he mumbled so quietly that she nearly didn't hear him say it, "Please...you've got to understand Molly."

Molly bit her lip with one of her fangs, "Well then I'll let mom know you said hello," she cried out bitterly before spinning around on her heels and walking away as quickly as she could out his sight so that he wouldn't see her start to cry.

"You know what I hate more than traversing through dank, dark tunnels that smell like something died?"

Inka rolled her eyes, "No Ploosh but knowing you you'll tell us anyways."

Ploosh growled in frustration at her comment before continuing, "I was referring to the fact that we're traveling through a dank, dark tunnel that smells like something died and we have no idea where we're going. We're literally coming into this mission blind!"

"Tia and Tyler are guiding us," Molly quickly pointed out as she indicated the two Octolings walking several paces ahead of them, "any Octarian would probably know these tunnels far better then we ever could."

"That doesn't mean I trust them."

"They want peace Ploosh."

"That's what their saying but is it really true?"

"Ploosh," Squil barked, instantly grabbing his attention.

"What?"

"Could you please for once stay quiet before you get us all in trouble. We are not here to start a second Great Turf War."

Ploosh grumbled something under his breath but otherwise stayed silent the rest of the journey through the tunnels.

As they neared a turn in the tunnel Octyler and Octatia turned around to face the four agents, "okay before we go into the dome we need to know if any of you can speak Calamarese?"

"All of us can," Molly answered, speaking in the before mentioned language instead of English, "one of our older agents taught us all so that if the need arose that we needed to speak in private we could without running the risk of being spied on."

"Well in this dome we have quite a few Octarians who know very little of any other language other than Takoyakese or Calamarese. One of which we need to talk to goes by the name Octakeshi. He used to be an Octarian captain and you'll have to be extremely careful what you say around him."

"Understood," dipping her head in agreement she turned to the other three who also bobbed their heads, "we will speak in Calamarese from now on if you want."

"Yes we do and thank you. We appreciate your help in dealing with this matter," turning back around they both rounded the corner with the four agents only a few paces behind them.

They all blinked several times at the sudden change of light as they walked into what looked like a wooded area, "What on Terra? How can you have plants underground?"

"This dome must be near the surface Ploosh," Molly answered as she looked around the area in awe, "the tricky part would be really getting what light comes down here focused in such a way that its energy can be used by vegetation."

Octatia whistled in surprise, "that's pretty impressive Ms. Colorian. Are you a botanist?"

"No, I'm a geneticist but I had tinkered around with being an engineer before I decided officially on my current career so I was able to theorize what you would need to create to accomplish such an amazing feat."

"Well you're pretty much right on for the answer. Using a mirror system we have been able to direct the light exactly where we want it to grow crops to obtain food for ourselves."

"Speaking of you Octarians it looks like our presence has been discovered," Inka stated as three young Octarians, an female Octoling, an Octocopter, and an Octotrooper, came out from between the trees and were about to greet the two adult Octolings when they spotted the four Inklings and stopped and stared at them wide eyed.

"It's okay little ones," Octatia insisted, "these Inklings have come to help us."

"You mean they are going to get rid of the metal monster?" The Octotrooper asked in a slightly high pitched voice. It sounded like it might be male but Molly wasn't certain.

"Yes, they're here to deal with the metal monster," Octatia answered him as she patted the Octotrooper's back, "could you let Octakeshi know we're coming?"

The trio nodded before dashing back into the woods ahead of the group, chattering loudly in Takoyakese to each other as they did so.

"They didn't seem too afraid of us."

"Many of them were too young to know of what happened four years ago to understand the significance of your arrival to this dome. Any adult who sees you however is another story entirely."

"Well we better get moving then before they get too far ahead of us. Lead on Tia and Tyler."

They nodded once before following the direction the youth had gone through the plant life.

After several minutes a clearly visible path revealed itself underneath their feet before opening up to a wide meadow with various building structures and dozens of Octarians of various types.

As soon as the group had stepped of the path and through the small village they were greeted with stares from dozens of bright glowing green emerald eyes. Some with curiosity and fear, while others with hostility and anger.

"Just ignore them, they won't hurt you with you being with us."

"How can you be so certain?" Ploosh asked as he partially flinched when a female Octoling growled at him while she clutched a tiny octopus infant in her arms.

"Because...they won't ever disobey their leader."

"You mean Octakeshi?"

"No, Octakeshi isn't our leader."

"Then who is Tia?" Molly asked.

Before she could answer a voice cried out, "Octatia! Is that you?" before the owner, a older female Octoling with her tentacles pulled back from her face with several strands of kelp, came rushing over to them and hug Octatia, "Oh thank goodness you're all right!"

"Mom...please stop," the young Octoling pleaded to the older one as she continued to be squashed in the hug, "I'm in the middle of something very important."

"Oh, sorry dear," she let her go, "you know I and the other elders really dislike it when you take off like that with no warning."

"I'm sorry Octariffa but this matter needs to be dealt with and these agents may be able to do just that," she turned and pointed at Molly, "this is Mollinda Colorian, she is their team leader and the one who took out that sad excuse of an Octoling Octavious."

"Tia! Don't say such things about Octavious."

"Why? Because he was my brother?" Octatia demanded harshly, "The jerk never cared about me or you or anyone else really but himself! Remember when dad finally escaped and came back to us ill and weak? We tried to contact him so that he could see father one last time and do you know what he did?"

"Tia-"

"He did nothing!" Octatia shouted, cutting her off, "he told me when I went to tell him about dad that it was his fault for underestimating a 14 year old kid and that he deserved to die for his stupidity," tears started to stream down her face, "He said those awful things and more to me as well as acted like I didn't existed for most of my life and you want me to show more respect for him? I'm sorry but if that's to be the case then perhaps it would be better if you picked someone else to be our leader!" choking back sobs she pushed through the gathering crowd and ran off into the surrounding woods.

Octyler made a move as if to go after only to have Octariffa shake her head at him, "Let her go Tyler, she needs time to adjust and we must give it to her."

"Wait...Octatia is...?" Molly asked worryingly.

"Octavious' sister?" Octariffa said with a sad expression as she stared in the direction Octatia had ran, "Yes she is, but I had Octavious long before I had Octatia which is why there was such a big age gap between them. Sadly I think that might have been one of the many reasons why they didn't get along well."

"So if they were both-"

"Yes...their father was DJ Octavio our past leader. Now that Octavious is no longer with us the task of being leader falls on my daughter's shoulders."

 _Oh great...my brother has a crush on the Octarian chief's daughter and he doesn't even know it._ Molly mentally commented to herself before shaking her head to rid herself of the thought, "Should we wait for her to come back?"

"No, she'll come round when she's ready but that doesn't mean you can't investigate the source of our distress," using a cane to walk an old male Octoling hobbled over to them at a fairly quick pace, "you must be the Inkling agents Tia mentioned. My name is Octakeshi but really I'd prefer to be called Takeshi. I was a captain during the Great Turf War and I still am heavily involved in basic training of some of the Octolings for the 5th Legion."

"It's nice to meet you Takeshi. I'm Mollinda Colorian, otherwise known as Agent 4. These three are my comrades, Squil Aquatica, Ploosh Seagrove and Inka Krakowski, being Agents 5, 6 and 7 respectively. Now from what I've gathered you have something you want us to see?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so Inkling. Follow me and I'll take you and your team to it."

"Then lead on sir, we're right behind you."

Nodding he headed down a pathway through the trees with Molly and the others following closely behind him. Several minutes in the path soon turned into a tiny trail with only the slightest look of being used before, "Takeshi I heard one of the children mention something about a 'metal monster' I was wondering what they were referring to."

He let out a grunt before turning to look at her, "They were referring to the thing I'm going to show you my dear."

Panic started to grip her heart but she plowed on with her questions, "But why do they call it that?"

"Because three times now it has awoken since we first found it and in each instance it has tried going after anyone who goes near it. Even though it is made of metal it seems very much alive and it terrifies the children."

"I see."

"If you fear that it might be too dangerous to proceed then-"

"No, I want to see it. If it really is as sentient as you claim then perhaps we can learn something from it."

"Very well Inkling," pushing back some ferns Takeshi revealed the entrance to a meadow, "we're here."

Swallowing nervously Molly walked past the old Octoling and out into the clearing with Squil, Ploosh and Inka right behind her.

Most of the meadow was covered in bright green grass with tiny white flowers dotted across but on the opposite side of it laid a giant machine that was laying motionless on two awkwardly folded metal legs like they were broken.

Rust covered most of it preventing Molly from seeing it's true color of finish but the shape and form alone made Molly audibly gasp before her hands flew to her mouth while she shook her head, "It can't be..."

"Molly, what is it?" Squil asked as fear came into his eyes, "do you know what it is?"

She didn't answer him but instead ran towards it only to stop a only a step in front of it.

Raising her hand towards it she hesitated for a second before placing her hand on its cold metal side and wiped away dust and grime from it to reveal the faded words 'Peace Walker' written in the human language on it which was only visible now after years of being cover in the stuff that covered most of the machine.

"Peace Walker..." she whispered as she continued to examine it, "...what has happened to you to make you like this? Is Ty alright or has something happened to him?!" her voice grew louder and in higher pitched as she waited for it to speak.

The machine remained silent and motionless in front of her like it had sat there for thousands of years.

She banged her fist on it in frustration, "answer me please Peace Walker! Have I waited too long to give my answer? If Ty is in danger then I want to help him, even if it kills me! I want to help!"

"Molly! What are you doing?" pulling her away Squil held her as she struggled to free herself, "please stop or you'll hurt yourself."

"But he could need my help," she cried out.

"He? Who are you talking about?"

"I must find a way to..." she froze when she suddenly heard something. Pricking her ears forward she was slowly able to deceiver the sound into words...

" _Sing, sing a song. Sing out loud, sing out strong..._ "

"Who's that singing?" Molly asked as she tried to pinpoint the source.

"Singing? Molly what are you talking about?"

"... _Sing of good things...not bad. Sing of happy...not sad..._ "

"You can't hear that?"

"No...Molly, no one is singing."

" _...Make it simple...to last your whole life long. Don't worry that it's not good enough..._ "

Realization soon came to Molly as she listened to more of the words. She turned her head towards the Peace Walker, "Is that you Peace Walker?"

"... _For everyone else to hear...just sing. Sing a song..._ "

"Does this mean it's not too late to help?"

" _Do you accept your new mission then Mollinda Colorian?_ " it asked her once it had stopped singing.

"I do," she answered with a moments hesitation.

" _Very well...prepare yourself!_ " the rusted Peace Walker suddenly lurched to life with a loud hum. getting up partially onto its legs a strange blue colored energy sparked across its hull and started to gather in front of it. After several minutes a bright blue sparking swirled around in a circle before them to form a tunnel of energy.

"What on Terra is that thing?!" Ploosh asked in shock.

"It appears to be some form of portal," Molly answered, "a way to travel from one place to another that may otherwise be impossible to do."

"But where does it go?"

"Only one way to find out," she took a step towards it.

"No! Molly don't..." he tried to reach for her but instead he tripped over an uneven patch of grass and ended up pushing her into it with him following behind with a yelp.

"Molly! Squil!" Inka nearly screamed before she jumped after them, "come on Ploosh, we can't lose them!"

"Oh great squid above us...why can't something normal ever happen to us?" Ploosh muttered to no one in particular before jumping in as well just before the portal collapsed in on itself seconds later.

* * *

The journey had only taken seconds before Molly found herself falling forward onto hard concrete. She only had a few seconds to regain her senses before Squil fell on top of her with a loud thud with Inka and Ploosh falling on top of each other next to the first them.

"Ugh..." Ploosh groaned as he clutched his stomach while his face turned a little green, "...that felt even more horrible then getting splatted repeatedly over a dozen of times..."

"Don't you dare throw up on me Ploosh!" Inka growled at him before pushing him away from her.

"Like I totally want that to happen..." he responded weakly.

"Molly..." Squil groaned as he got off of her, "what we're you thinking?"

"Sorry Squil...I didn't know that was going to happen," surprisingly enough she didn't feel that bad. Sore like when she had awoken to the dream from the day before but she didn't feel ill or weak like the other three clearly were.

She had become so worried about her team that she almost didn't notice another person's presence. Whipping her head around she reached up to grab her Hero Brush in defense but stopped when she saw the person.

He was a yellow colored Inkling but unlike most normal yellow Inklings the tips of his tentacles were gold colored and his eyes were sapphire blue like a blue Inkling's eyes. A color combo Molly had only seen in one place, and it hadn't been in this reality...

Watching him she saw him lower his arm from reaching behind to grab the hilt of a sword strapped to his back. It was then that she dared to confirm what her eyes were having trouble believing stood before her...or rather who stood before.

"Ty?" her voice slightly cracked as she spoke.

"Molly...I didn't think we'd see each other again this quickly."


	30. Two Worlds Meet

_Author's notes: Oh my gosh I'm so sorry guys. I didn't think this was going to take as long as it did to write but between school, and some other things it took me longer to get this chapter done. As conpensation this one is actually pretty long...almost three times as long actually...why on earth did I do this to myself...?_

 _ **From Original Otaku o.O:**_ _So Molly's full name is Sia Mollinda "Molly" Walker-Colorian Aquatica now?_

 _ **Author:**_ _Not quite. Mollinda is her full first name with Molly being her nickname that she prefers to go by. Sia, her Inkling first name, she decided to keep as her middle name instead of making it her first name for two reasons; one being her desire to have something to remind her of Lily Walker, the human who raised her, the other the fact that she has always gone by Molly so switching names would have been hard. She, however did drop the last name Walker so her name is currently Mollinda "Molly" Sia Colorian, but yes her last name will become Aquatica-Colorian after she and Squil get married._

 _Reviews are always welcomed as well as questions. Also special thanks to Tehreign who helped with figuring out all the dialog for this chapter. I seriously am not sure I could have pulled this off on my own._

 _Enjoy._

 **Chapter 30: Two Worlds Meet**

"Ty...I can't believe it. Is this for real or are we in a dream again?" Molly quickly asked as she got up from the ground, making her almost not notice she had defaulted to speaking Calamarese.

"Um...no...this real...and physical," he takes a few steps towards her then sniffs quickly once like he had smelled something, "do you have any food on you?"

"Um, no I don't think so...why?" she answered him, slightly puzzled at his question.

"Ah..." he started to say when one of his ears twitched before he turned to look over at a cardboard box. Seeing nothing he turned back to face Molly, "so...who did you bring?"

A deep growling sound instantly made both of them turn to see Squil having already gotten to his feet. His icy glare aimed at Ty as he opened his mouth partially to show his two sharp upper canines, "Molly..." he asked in barely controlled anger, "...who is this guy and how on Terra does he know your name? Also why is he speaking in Calamarese? No Inkling regularly speaks in Calamarese nowadays..."

"You've crossed dimensions, Squil," Ty answered him, much to Squil's obvious displeasure at him talking, "Things are always going to defer except from main key factors. For example: we are all inklings. Not only that, but there was a Peace Walker, was there not?"

"Okay I don't know about you guys but I can't decide which is creepier; the fact that yellow dude and Molly seem to know each other very well even though he just said we jumped dimensions or the fact that he knows your name Squil and you two have never met," Ploosh commented as he got onto his feet. His condition had certainly improved over the last few minutes but he certainly didn't look completely well either.

Immediately Squil's expression turned to one of worry as he turned to face Molly, "Molly...?"

"Squil I sware I never mentioned your name in our meetings."

"Wait...you two have met multiple times?" Inka asked as she glanced back and forth between her and Ty several times.

"Yes...well sort of anyway..." Molly trailed off at the end as she stared worryingly at Squil. She didn't blame him in the slightest for thinking that it was rather suspicious she knew Ty, but she hoped there would be away to explain it to him that what he thought might be happening, wasn't.

The glare soon returned to his face but this time it was aimed at her, "What do you mean 'sort of'?"

"Oh..." a blush started to form on Molly's face as she stumbled to find the right words. Quickly turning to face Ty she quickly asked, "Ty could you help me explain?"

"Yes..." he answered as he cleared his throat and grabbed a cup of coffee off a table before continuing, "Though Molly was there about 3 or 4 times, we met in our dreams...in a realm called the Dimensional Plain. There, many windows to other universes can be viewed. I just so happened to be there many other times, not just the times we met...I've seen on multiple occassions Molly interacting with this fine gentleman..." he then pointed at Squil with his cup, "...whom she loved so dearly. In fact, it almost reminds me of my time with my now current wife..."

The cardboard box from earlier suddenly hit Squil up side the head, causing him to reel backwards several steps. Looking away briefly from Squil Molly saw that a female Inkling now stood next to Ty who was also staring at her in shock. She had a tan skin tone and cyan colored tentacles that swayed gently next to her face, but instead of them turning dark colored her tentacle tips were gray. She stared down Ty with brilliant green eyes, "Ty, honey, don't look too exited to see me-"

"You just hit someone with a cardboard box..." Ty stated.

"What? He seemed non-believing..." she answered him.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how much you just helped..."

Still slightly confused at the sudden change of events in the room Molly turned back to see Squil rubbing the spot on his head where he had been hit, "Squil! Are you alright?"

"Yeah..." he answered as he continued to rub the injury, "...I think so...but I must ask one question...who on Terra hits a guy with a box?!"

"Um...her?" Ploosh said as he pointed at the cyan Inkling.

"I think it's safe to say that we might have gotten off on the wrong foot. Perhaps we could start again?" Inka quickly stated as the tension tried to build again.

"Gladly," Ty answered as he cleared his throat again, "...I am Corporal Major Ty Colorian, AKA; Archangel. This is my wife, Vybe," as he said this his tentacles started to glow brightly, which made Squil, Inka and Ploosh take a step back in surprise.

"I am Vybe Colorian, Ty's wife. Bearer of three eggs," the cyan Inkling exclaimed as she allowed her two tentacles to get close to each other and a short burst of electricity arced between them.

Making sure that she spoke in Calamarese instead of the normal language she was used to Molly took a step forward, "My name is Mollinda Colorian or simply Molly but I'm often referred to as Agent 4. I also am one of the last of the orange Inklings," as she said this her eyes briefly flashed bright orange for a few seconds before changing back to their standard brightness.

"Ploosh Seagrove also known as Agent 6. I'm also Molly's cousin," Ploosh said in Calamarese as he flashed his classic mischievous smile.

"Inka Krakowski but on mission I'm Agent 7," Inka said simply in Calamarese as she bowed her head at the pair.

"Squil Aquatica Aka Agent 5," Squil introduced in slightly awkward version of Calamarese. Unlike the other three he still had trouble speaking in it at times, "I um...can't do anything weird like you guys appear to be doing. Also sorry about my first initial response."

"Actually that is a good point Squil," Ploosh pointed out, "You have abilities like Molly, don't you?"

"Yes...mine is called the Beacon," Ty answered, "it helps guide souls back to their spot of origin. This heals wounds otherwise unable to be restored...this taxes my body to use, so I limit myself...to a degree..." he then pulls out a dozen small slips of paper and starts to do various tricks with them before putting them back.

"I produce over 5 times the normal electricity, and it is stored in my tentacles," Vybe stated with a grin.

"Cool!" Ploosh cried out.

Inka rolled her eyes at him, "Typical."

Molly swallowed nervously before speaking, "Well mine is known as Changeling where we come from but I don't know if it goes by that here. I can change my form to match the form of another species, even down to almost completely matching the DNA of the species but in order to do so however I need the DNA from that species. You've probably seen my eyes flash a lot in our meetings which shows my ability awakening. I must ask though Ty, are abilities common in this dimension?"

"More or less," Ty started to explain, "from the times I've watched your universe, it seemed you only met a few others with abilities. The nausea and dizziness may have been caused by molecular change..."

Vybe suddenly pushed him out of the way, "Essentially, your body's have changed for the move to this universe."

Picking himself up Ty looked over at his wife when something caught his eye, "Whoa Vybe...what...what happened?"

As Vybe turned to face him Molly was able to see what Ty had spotted. Down the length of Vybe's right arm was long dark red scar that strongly resembled a lightning bolt, "Um...that isn't normal?" she asked.

"No, it isn't...to be honest, I don't know what it truly is..." Vybe replied as she looked down at it herself.

"I will do some research later," Ty insisted, "for now, you five need to go to the surface. My labs are up there. From there, it is a short walk to the outside. Vybe, honey, could you please help them in finding a temporary residence so that they are not on the streets?"

"Sure will," giving him a quick kiss she waved her hand for Molly, Squil, Inka and Ploosh to follow her. After each said a quick goodbye the team followed the cyan Inkling towards the elevator.

"So...you're kinda like a zapfish if you really think about it...right?" Ploosh asked with a slight smile on his face.

"Ploosh!" Inka cried out as she hit him in the back of his head, "that's not something you just randomly ask someone you only just met!"

"What? I was only asking. Sheesh, you don't have to make a big deal out of it..."

"Well at least you guys seem to be alright now..." Molly stated, "...especially you Ploosh. I mean what was with that?"

He shrugged, "Beats me I felt really sick but I seem fine now. Say mildly curious though where are you taking us anyway Vybe?"

"Up. I may as well give you a tour of our labs if our destination is up anyways," she pressed a button to call the elevator down, "besides, there might be things there you are interested in..." with a loud ding the elevator doors slid open and they all stepped inside.

"Hey Vybe...how long have you and Ty been together? Obviously you're married and you said you two have three kids but well..." Molly started to say before her courage failed her and her face turned bright red, "...never mind it's not my place to be asking such questions."

"Oh don't sweat it too much. We married over a month ago, but we were dating for at least 4 years before...unofficially," she smiled at the thought.

"Me and Squil started dating when we were 14...but we're not married...yet."

"'Yet' being the key term," Inka commented, "I mean he hasn't even asked to marry you, has he?"

"Um..." her blush from seconds before instantly returned a hundred fold as she looked down at her hands, specifically the one that for a brief few minutes had a ring on it before she pulled it back off.

It didn't take much for Inka to be able for her to understand Molly's reaction to her question, her eyes immediately widened in shock, "Wait, what? He has? When?" she cried out in rapid succession before placing her hands over mouth to shut herself up.

Even though she was quiet Molly could still see the mental gears turning in her head as many more questions passed through her head. She sighed before answering, "Yesterday...he snuck into my office before I had arrived for work and was waiting for me there."

Ploosh immediately stared at Squil, who looked like he was trying to avoiding his gaze, "Dude, seriously?"

"No Ploosh, it's okay..." Molly insisted as memories of the event came flooding back to her, "...actually thought it was really sweet," she looked over towards Squil just as he looked up and a smile formed on their faces as they continued to gaze into each other's eyes for a good solid minute.

"Well by the looks of it, it had a better reaction than your first meeting," Inka commented.

Breaking each other's gaze both Molly and Squil turned red as they both looked down at their feet and remained silent for several minutes.

Vybe was the one who finally broke the silence, "Squil, you haven't said anything...you alright? Or are you one of those silent types?"

He immediately looked up at her scared, "What?! No I'm not it's just that..." he sighed heavily as he allowed his shoulders to slump down, "I don't know...I guess I'm still feeling the effects from traveling between the dimensions. I still don't quite feel normal yet..."

Before Molly could ask him anymore on the subject a loud ding announced their arrival and the door opened up to large lobby that reminded her both of a lobby from a hospital as well as a hotel, "Shall the tours begin?" Vybe asked once they had all stepped out of the elevator.

"I suppose so," Molly answered her as she continued gaze at Squil, slightly concerned.

"Well, We are standing in the lobby of our labs. Over behind the elevators..." she then pointed to a series of thick acrylic windows, "...is our mass-scale prototype room, where we build and test new technologies like energy producing things, UFO's, stuff like that. Now if you follow me..." she then walked towards a small hallway at a rather fast pace.

Quickly following her down it and through a set of automatic doors they entered into a large warehouse sized space, "...This is what we call the Hangar. Anything large we store here. We have a space to build small ships and submarines, and an airstrip out back," as they continue to walk she points towards an object that was covered with a thick sheet and its shape strongly resembled a small plane, "that is Ty's pride and joy. Don't touch it!" her voice took on a warning tone at the end.

Immediately Ploosh stuffed his hands into his Hero Suit's pockets as he looked at the cyan Inkling warily. After staring at him sternly for a solid minute she turned away and started to explain more parts of the Hanger as he released a huge sigh of relief before following her again as the tour continued.

Eventually they returned to they lobby where Vybe stopped them in front of the elevator again, "Now we need to find you guys an establishment. I already checked, and your currency is the same as ours, so what you have may get you a large enough apartment..."

"I don't suppose you have room in your own apartment do you?" Molly interjected, causing Vybe to stop mid-sentence, "I wouldn't want to intrude if you don't but since we have no idea when we'll return back to our own dimension we might not have enough between the four of us to pay rent on one for more then a month or two..."

The cyan Inkling stood there for several seconds as she contemplated the question but then a smile forms on her face, "We do have the couch-bed in the living room and the secret room. The secret room is...well...secret. Ty uses it to train himself, but it is climate controlled. We'll just need to pull out the beds from the couches."

Ploosh shrugs, "I'll take the couch in the living room."

"It doesn't sound that bad," Inka adds in.

"I can sleep on the floor if I have to," Squil says before anyone else could say anything.

Memories of the one night in which he had said something very similar instantly came to Molly's mind, causing a wrenching sensation to come into her gut at the situation, "Oh, thank you Squil but you shouldn't be forced to be on the floor..."

"Both couches are queen sized..." Vybe quickly explained, "the one in the living room and the one in the secret room..."

"...I suppose we could share the one in the secret room..." Molly finally says after a few seconds as her face turned red for the umpteenth time over the course of the last several days.

"It would make sense I guess..." Squil admittedly agreed as his face turned red as well, "we're engaged now so we can't keep avoiding this matter..."

"Me and Ty slept together all the time once we proposed to each other, that is until the week before our wedding. Of course, me and him always respected each other's wishes."

"I suppose you have a point Vybe," Molly sighed as she tried to calm herself back down.

"So yeah...let me see if I can even find you guys extra clothes..." pulling her phone out she quickly dialed a number before placing it up to her ear. After less then a minute someone on the other side picks up, "Is Hanako there? Oh, hi Jericho. Yes I need Hanako. Okay, thanks," she waits a few seconds before talking again "...Hanako? Yes, do you mind going into our bedroom and getting two sets of clothes per gender? Alright, thanks sweetie. Love you too," getting off the phone she looks up at the team, "okay, I should have you guys covered for now...but first thing in the morning, shopping."

"Thank you Vybe. We really do appreciate yours and Ty's help," Molly quickly insisted, "I must ask though, who's Hanako and Jericho? You seem really close based on your interactions with them."

"They are our adopted children. Their parents died about 3 weeks ago. We brought them in because they were hunting for food. They were homeless, not to mention that they are always helpful to us..."

"So...when you said three eggs you meant you actually have five kids. Three biological, two adopted...right?"

"Yep!" Vybe answered brightly, "Thank goodness Ty has a high-pay...otherwise we couldn't support ourselves..." she added just as a 14 year old Inkling girl with light pink colored tentacles, bright green eyes and a large red bow tied to the back of her head walked into the lobby with a pile of clothing in her hands.

"Here you go mom!" she then hands the clothes over to Vybe just as she noticed the other four. She stares at them for a few seconds, particularly at Molly, "Who are these people?"

"You must be Hanako," Molly says as she smiles down at her, "my name is Molly and this my fiancé Squil, my cousin Ploosh and my friend Inka."

"Oh hi! Nice to meet you too!" Smiling warmly she turned around and headed back out the door.

"She's the cheery one of the two," Vybe said as she watched the Hanako head out of sight, "Jericho is more...self-centered...but he's a good kid."

"Heh, sounds like me when I was younger," Ploosh commented.

"Thankfully that's not you now," Inka responded as she gave him a slight glare.

"Well, anyways, go to one of the unoccupied rooms to get out of the Hero Suits, get in these clothes, and follow me," Vybe then pointed to the rooms she referred to, "knowing Ty, it will take him a while with testing, so we might as well get going."

After several minutes they had each donned on a new set of clothes and the only sign left of them even being agents being the black packs they had and Ploosh's Hero Roller and Molly's Hero Brush which couldn't collapse small enough to fit in the bags so they stayed in their sheaths on both Inklings' backs, "I think we're all set Vybe."

"Alright then. To my place!" barely giving them a moment to ensure they had all their things she rushed out the door, too excited to even slow down after she had gotten outside.

"Yikes, somebody is energetic," Squil said wide eyed.

"Maybe it's the electric ability that is making her so hyper," Ploosh suggested.

"Who knows," Molly responded as she shrugged her shoulders before she and the other three rushed out to follow Vybe.

* * *

After walking for some time Vybe brought them in front of a very modern, and expensive looking apartment complex, "Come," she told them as she held the door for them before heading towards the elevators for the place.

Ploosh let out a low whistle as he looked around before stepping into the elevator, "Wow you two certainly have quite a bit of money don't you...?"

"Well, when the Husband is the CEO of the labs, of course money finds the worthy ones..." she presses a button and the elevator doors shut seconds before they feel the sensation of being raised up, "...Although we do charity every two months. We did ours last week. Next one is December 19th."

"Do you work Vybe?" Molly asked.

"Of course I do, just not as often. I take over the labs for Ty when he's at base."

"I understand," something told her that Ty had probably visited the base quite a few times but she decided not to question any farther. If they wanted her to know they would tell her eventually.

With a loud ding the elevator doors slid open to a hallway. Turning right Vybe walks over to the door next to it and unlocked the door. Opening the door wide she breathes in deeply before letting out a great sigh of happiness, "Ah... Home sweet home..." as she says this her tentacles spark slightly with energy.

"Your ability is effected by your emotions isn't it?" Molly asked her as she watched the sparks from Vybe's tentacles disappear just as quickly as they had appeared.

"Only if if relates to Ty and family, otherwise it's able to be used anywhere...though you are right now that I think about it in the sense that it is more active when I'm happy or mad..."

"Mine tends to react more when I'm stressed so that's why I asked," Molly quickly admitted, "up until now I've never had a different ability to base mine off of in terms of reactions since abilities don't really appear in my dimension...or at least not at this current time. Orange was pretty much it and then the Octarians tried to wipe us all out and..." a shiver ran down her spine as remembered all the research she and Squil had done on the subject, "sorry...originally I didn't particularly like Octarians due to what they did to my family. My father was even killed by Octarians as he was trying to protect me."

Ah, I see...well, only the Octolings are being friendly as of now. So if you see an Octoling, don't worry. In fact, we know a few ourselves. One of them seems to have no issue with sneaking in one way or another..."

A sudden loud crash rang through the air which caused the group to freeze as a loud frustrated voice came from what looked to be the direction of the kitchen.

"Cod dang it! I try to clean the barrel, and it slips out of my hands like soap!"

Molly immediately turned to Vybe, "Who on Terra was that?"

"Sounds like somebody who's having a bad day," Squil commented warily.

It was then that a female Octoling walked out of the kitchen carrying the barrel and stock of a sniper rifle in her hands. She didn't have the standard Octoling goggles on her face but she did have an eye patch over her left eye preventing the group from seeing it. She also was wearing a headband over her head.

"Oh for squids sake, Aizel...what did you do to the threading on the barrel this time?" Vybe immediately demanded of the Octoling.

It was forcefully pulled out during a mission..." she answered, clearly irritated by the fact, "and ever since, the aim's been off. I was going to ask you for any rubber bands, but I see we have company," she then stared directly at the rest of the group.

"Aizel? It's not Octaizel?" Molly asked only to instantly regret it when she saw the Octoling's reaction to hearing her name with the added syllable.

"Nope. Never was, never will. Sounds stupid the way you put it..." she then narrowed her gaze at them, "wait a minute...are you from around here?"

"Um...no we're not and sorry about that," Molly quickly apologized, not wanting to irritate the Octoling farther, "the Octarians from where I came from put 'Oct' in front of their name as a sign of respect but sometimes they drop the first part. My name is Mollinda Colorian but most just call me Molly. This is Squil Aquatica, Ploosh Seagrove and Inka Krakowski," as she said each name she pointed to each member of her team.

"Huh, I thought Ty only had a brother, and he's dead. But whaddaya know? I swear that corporal major is full of secrets..."

 _Even Ty has secrets huh? I wonder what he's keeping under wraps._ Molly thought before answering the Octoling, "It's a bit more complicated than that Aizel but um, sure we can go with that," a faint blush crossed her face.

"Well, I'm off to go find some rubber bands. See you all later," and with that she walked out the door still carrying the sniper rifle parts in her arms.

Of course, she uses the front door when she leaves..." Vybe said as she shook her head sadly at the retreating Octoling.

"Octolings are certainly interesting individuals is what I learn some years ago...then again I've met both Octolings that wanted my help and Octolings who wanted to kill me..."

"Well, here, they are allies...and my gut tells me that war is coming...knowing that, it kinda makes me scared..." Vybe's serious expression instantly returned to its usual smile, "anyways, any of you hungry?"

"I'm good but if the rest of you are interested go ahead," Squil responded as he suddenly shivered and started to rub his arms, a slightly anxious look coming over his face.

"Are you sure you're alright Squil?"

"Yes Molly I'm fine just...a little cold I suppose..." he answered her as he continued to rub his arms with his hands.

A serious expression came onto Vybe's face for a brief moment before she returns to her usual cheerful self, "Well, I think some sort of food is needed...so Molly, want to help me make sandwiches?"

"Sure," she agreed. Even though she didn't want to leave Squil in his current questionable condition she had to admit hunger was starting to sink in. Considering the fact that she hadn't eaten since early that morning she was shocked she hadn't noticed before.

She took one last glance at Squil before following Vybe into the kitchen where she immediately grabbed some form of meat from the fridge and pushed over a loaf of bread to start making the sandwiches. After several minutes of silence Vybe suddenly leaned over next to Molly's ear, "Squil is showing the signs..."

She froze with the knife she was holding halfway to a jar of mayo in her other hand. Her eyes faintly starting to glow in fear she turned to look at Vybe, "Signs? What signs? Do you think Squil is ill or something?"

Vybe shook her head as she continued to whisper, "Not illness, but a rising strength...abilities here have an acceptance process...and due to the dimensional change, it is possible that he will soon go through it himself."

Molly suddenly remembered something someone had said to Squil and her some years ago, " _As for you I have no need for a blue Inkling. I've heard they can have very powerful abilities just like some of the other colors but you're past your chance of obtaining it and thus past your chance of being useful to me..."_

She quickly pushed the thought away, "Squil might have an ability? But what? And what about Ploosh and Inka? Could they have abilities too?"

"Quite possibly. Ty has done research on abilities, even now new ones are being found. Thanks to Ty the focus on abilities has increased dramatically."

"You mentioned something called an 'acceptance process' just a minute ago, what exactly is that?"

"Well, a few weeks after turning 14, the body freezes in its current pose, unable to awaken until either two things happen: The body accepts, or it denies the the ability. Since you four came when you were over 14, it could happen way sooner...Squil is showing the signs that an ability is trying to manifest, but it might be easier for him when he's asleep. I would not worry too much, unless he is awake, because it's painful when it happens while awake..."

She swallowed nervously, "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

"I am. I went through mine asleep; I woke up to scratch marks all over my bed. Hanako went through hers awake; she was aching and in pain the rest of the day...poor girl..."

"I don't recall ever go through something like that for my ability. And as far as I can tell I've had access to my ability all my life and not just at 14."

"Same thing is said for Ty's ability. From my own research, there appears to be one more like that but I suspect it's just a rumor."

She took a deep breath before she spoke again, "Vybe I have to ask...have you or Ty run into any one else with an ability like mine?"

"Only two. One that let us do research on it, and the other ran away from some sort of cult or something...but so far, only those two until you came."

"Do you have names on them? Also how old are they?" She paused when she saw a hint of worry cross over Vybe's face, "I'm sorry if I seem a little pushy but you have to know that aside from my older brother and my father, who I don't even remember, I've never met anyone like me."

"The one that helped us with research wanted to stay anonymous. The one that ran from a cult is Amber. Amber Zadornov."

"Amber Zadornov...and you haven't seen her since?"

"Um...only when Jericho brings her over...and her story is one that needs to be kept secret...otherwise they will come back for her," as she spoke Vybe slowly became more and more uncomfortable.

Gilt at bringing up what appeared to be a touchy subject clenched Molly's heart, "Oh...I understand Vybe. I won't ask farther on the subject then..."

After several minutes of silence they had made all the sandwiches. Carrying them on a pair of platters they brought them out into the living room, "Lunch is served!"

As soon as Molly had sat down Squil sat down next to her, "You two got really quiet in there all of a sudden, is everything alright Molly?"

Panic started to rise within her but she tried hide it, "Everything is fine Squil. We were just talking."

"About what?"

"Nothing to worry yourself about...right Vybe?" As she turned to look at the cyan Inkling she mentally pleaded that Vybe would stay quiet.

"No worries, we were just focused on making the sandwiches for a bit. Anyways, eat up! Don't leave any survivors!"

Breathing a mental sigh of relief she picked up one of the sandwiches and started to eat.

Before she was even a quarter of the way through hers though Vybe had already practically inhaled her first sandwich and was reaching for a second, "Yum..."

"And I thought I used to have a large appetite," Ploosh commented between bites of his own sandwich.

"Well, being a mom does it...gotta prepare for the kids when they hatch!"

"When will they hatch Vybe?" Molly asked.

"In about 5 or 6 months. I can't wait sometimes...occasionally I will sit up when I wake up and stare at them..." even as she spoke a smile rose up on her face, "...My precious babies..."

"5 to 6 months? I didn't know it was that long..."

"Well, I laid them about a month ago..." Vybe explained, somewhat confused at Molly's reaction.

Molly blushed slightly in embarrassment, "Sorry if a seem a little naive about some things. Even with it being over 5 years since I first arrived in Inkopolis I still seem to find out that I don't know something that most Inklings my age would."

"Ah! That's ok, So what do you guys like to do as a pass-time?"

"Well both Squil and Ploosh play Turf War in the Major League while Inka is in college and I'm working now so most of the time we're all pretty busy but we still every once in a while go do some form of mission," she paused as a thought suddenly dawned on her, "Actually now that I'm thinking about it up until yesterday none of us had really seen much of each other in several months."

"Well you guys will have more time to be together now. Molly if you want to you can work at our lab if you want. Squil and Ploosh, I'm sorry to say this but the turf war station has been closed down for reasons only Ty can disclose, and Inka...what were you studying?"

I'm was working on a History major actually. I have always been fascinated by ancient cultures ever since I was young," Inka replied.

"Ah, Ty can help with that, especially the world wars the ancients had...as well as some other events..."

"So...Landdwe-err, I mean humans aren't alive anymore?" Molly asked, only just barely catching her slip up.

If Vybe had noticed her mistake she didn't show any sign of it, "Only a few are left. We don't know where, but they exist."

"Oh good," inadvertently Molly let out a sigh of relief but again no one seemed to notice.

Suddenly the front door flung open as a green Inkling boy with green eyes walked into the room. He currently seemed very proud of himself about something.

"Oh, Jericho, you're home early."

"We finally got a lead on another drug cartel. We are going to destroy it..." he started to say before he noticed Molly and the other three in the room. His eyes grew wide in fear for a few seconds, "Uh...um...you heard nothing, fools!" he quickly dashed up the stairs before anyone could say anything.

"Oh please tell me I was not that self-centered?" Ploosh pleaded as he looked at Inka who currently was raising an eyebrow at him.

"It's odd how that child gets along so well with Ty..." Vybe said as she finally looked away from where her adoptive son had gone.

"He certainly seems interesting to say the least," Molly commented.

"Yep...hey, want to play some video games?"

Ploosh immediately perked up, "You play video games? Sweet I haven't met a girl that like those...no offense Inka..."

The only response he got from her was an eye roll.

"Heck to the yes! Video games for the win!"

"Awesome!"

"Vybe..." Inka groaned, "...you're encouraging him...please don't."

"It's not like video games are a bad thing Inka," Molly tried to assure her purple colored friend as Vybe pulled out some things for playing, "I mean how bad could it be?"

* * *

"Do it, do it, do it," Vybe repeatedly chanted as the two boys continued to pound away at the controllers in their hands, Squil more in desperation than anything since Ploosh was about to defeat him again.

"Ah, video games. Heh."

Molly turned away from the screen briefly to see Ty standing behind her, she muttered somewhat iritated as she turned back to watching the match, "I knew my cousin was competitive but I didn't think it was this bad..."

"You talking about Ploosh, Molly?"

"Yes...I am..."

"Uh huh...," he directed his next question more towards Squil and Ploosh than her, "what game are you guys playing?"

Neither of them had heard him since they were now currently arguing over whether Ploosh was cheating or not, "Ploosh I think you're taking way too much of an advantage over the fact that your character shoots fire, lightning and...what that last move I just heard him use?"

"I think the character said something about wind but I don't know...nor do I care..." Inka answered him as she took a sip from a cup of peppermint tea she had in her hands.

"Well you're one to talk. You're using a character that shoots water, water of all things..." Ploosh retorted back.

"He looked cool! How was I supposed to know he used water to attack?"

Molly turned back to face Ty again, "Does that answer your question Ty?"

"Yep...it does...though I wonder if I can join in?"

Vybe grins up at him, "Sure you can!"

"Ugh! Boys..." Inka groaned as she shook her head at the three.

"Boys will be boys," Ty stated, "anyways, the testing was completed, so I came home after everything was cleaned up."

This instantly peaked Molly's interest, "What are you working on anyway Ty, or is that classified information?"

"Well, armor tests. Won't say anything else. So yeah, I'm going to the labs for the next few days. Base is just preparing for the inevitable. Besides, I have a few things myself that I need to build and test," walking over to a shelf he placed a sword on top of it before coming over to sit next to Vybe. Molly stared at it after he had placed it on the shelf for several seconds before turning to face Ty again.

"That sword...it was the same one that you had in the last dream we shared, right?"

He nodded before looking up at the TV screen, "So, how many matches so far, and total rounds won?"

"10 matches have taken place with Ploosh being victorious 6 times while Squil only 3 and one being a tie," Inka answered him, slightly surprising Molly.

"You know for disliking video games you sure seem to be pretty observant."

"I ought to cheer on my boyfriend shouldn't I?"

"Well yeah but-"

"Then the topic doesn't need to be explored any farther," Inka sharply stated before going back to drinking her tea.

"Should I even the odds a bit?" Ty asked once the latest match had ended.

"Go for it, I'm terrible at games like these so I would probably only make it worse if I tried to help," Molly admitted.

"Okay, hand me a controller. I'm about to teach you two some things..."

"Alright Ty man show us what you can do," Ploosh replied as he tossed an unused controller towards Ty.

With a great amount of ease he caught it and selected a character on the screen with blond hair and a large red colored sword, "The future is not for you to decide. Let's begin."

"Bring it!" Ploosh immediately cries out as he flashes his classic mischievous grin at Ty.

"Why do I having a sinking feeling I would be so screwed if we were on opposite teams..." Squil said as a shiver ran down his back before he returned his focus to the TV screen.

"Time to start the lecture!"

* * *

"Monado boy wins again!" Ty shouted excitedly as the latest victory went to him and Squil.

Ploosh immediately growled, frustrated, in response, "But how? I was doing so good too..."

"Well I suppose it's better to lose to the professional then someone who's simply mashing buttons," placing his controller in his lap he glanced over at a digital clock on a shelf, "Oh my squid! Have we been seriously playing that long?"

Looking over at the clock as well Molly became instantly confused, "20:21? What does that mean?"

"It's 8:21pm Molly," Inka explained, "what you're seeing on that clock is called military time and the way to tell the time after noon is you subtract 12 from the hour number to determine the time."

Turning his head Ty quickly spotted Vybe in the kitchen, who was almost done with making dinner, "Excuse me gents, I'm going to set the table," he replied as he quickly got up.

As soon as she was certain neither Ty nor Vybe could hear her Molly quickly whispered to Squil, "How are you holding up?"

"Well the fact that we just met a man who has the same last name as you but isn't like some cousin is still somewhat disorienting," he answered in a somewhat sarcastic tone, a sure sign that he was still irritated about her not telling him about Ty.

She swallowed back the lump that was trying to form in her throat, "I'm sorry Squil but I was too afraid to tell you about him. When I saw him two nights ago I didn't think that-"

"Molly, we're engaged, you can't keep secrets like that from me anymore."

"I'm sorry Squil I-" she quickly fell silent when she saw Ty and Vybe come back into earshot.

"Food is ready!" Vybe shouts loudly causing several of the group to jump slightly. Shortly thereafter two pairs of feet running down the stairs signified Hanako's and Jericho's arrival downstairs only a few seconds before they had come down and immediately sat down around the table. Soon the rest of them gathered around and sat down as well with Ty sitting at one of the ends.

"Time to consume stuff!" he quickly says before starting to eat. Without any farther prompting the others follow suit.

It wasn't until several mouthfuls into her meal that Molly noticed that Squil still hadn't even taken a single bite and was instead continously pushing it around his plate like a young child who refuses to eat.

"Squil...please eat something."

"I told you Molly I'm not hungry. Forcing myself would probably make me feel sick..." he answers her before going back to playing with the food on his plate.

Both Ty and Vybe immediately look over at each other and stare into each other's gaze for several seconds. Almost seeming to be sharing thoughts with each other that only they could understand. Breaking eye contact Ty looks over at Squil again, "Squil, trust me, eating at least the meat will help. the herbs Vybe cooked it with should help with it."

"Yep," Vybe added.

"Fine..." he half grumbled as he placed a forkful into his mouth. At first he chewed it somewhat slowly but eventually gathered speed before swallowing it, "You're right...it does seem to help. Thank you Vybe."

"You're welcome. Hanako helps me out with these kinds of things."

"Yep!" the light pink colored Inkling cried out happily as she nodded her head.

"Well you certainly have a good understanding of cooking. Lily taught me how to cook but being at work makes me have little time to make stuff that wasn't quick," dozens of memories flashed through her mind as she recalled hundreds of various lessons her human adoptive mother had given her. Some turning into delicious meals while others became disgusting messes which were promptly thrown out. Being raised cooking only vegetarian meals though had admittedly made it difficult to conjure up meals with the necessary protein her body needed when she finally moved into her own apartment.

She sighed mentally nethertheless, sometimes she really did miss her human mother and wished she could see her again. But she couldn't possibly see a way she could do so, especially since she wasn't even in the same dimension now...

"Ah. Yeah, I make sure I get home by at most 7, mainly so that I can help cook..." Ty paused as he glanced over at his wife "Oh wait Vybe, have we shown them the eggs?"

"No we haven't yet," she admitted, "Should we?"

"Yes!"

She smiled, "Alright then," still grinning the cyan Inkling rushed up the stairs.

"There goes thunder-thighs..." Jericho muttered before going back to eating.

Molly immediately turned to face him as she raised an eyebrow in puzzlement, "Thunder-thighs?"

"Oh...that's the nickname Aizel gave to Vybe when she got so angry one time during a mission..." Ty started to say before the sound of Vybe coming down the stairs caused him and the others to look.

In her arms was a tank filled with ink and resting within the ink was three orbs with swirls of yellow and cyan color on each one. Each one having a color on it that was more dominant than the other except for one which was too close of a even mixture of both colors that Molly couldn't tell.

"I have the goods!" she said once she had stepped down from the last step.

"Oh my squid, they're so beautiful and cute! I especially love the mixture of the two colors!" Molly cried out as she stared down at them. As she did so it suddenly dawned on her that this was the first time she had set eyes on a clutch of Inkling eggs. The closest before being when she had accidentally taken an Octoling egg and it had hatched while it was in her possession when she was 14.

"It's funny, because we already know their names."

"Yeah...Time Travelers..." Vybe sighed.

Molly's eyes widened, "T-time travelers?" she stuttered out, not quite believing what she had just heard. Dimensional Siblings she could understand but Time Travelers involved a realm of science that she didn't think was possible.

"Yeah...but never mind that..." Ty quickly said as he tried to change the subject, "So, what do you plan on doing once...um...you get married? Kids?"

A bright red blush immediately crossed over Molly's face, "Oh, um...well at some point we would like to have kids, right Squil?"

"I um...yeah," he stutters out in response as he turns red as well.

"But I think that may be a bit of aways away for now, we still aren't married yet so we have time," Molly quickly added.

"I think it would be really cute if you two had a little orange squid," Inka replied with what Molly suddenly noticed was slightly wistful tone.

"What if it was blue?" Squil pointed out.

"The color was only an example, besides you have no idea what color it would be either. You could possibly have a green kid since green runs very strongly in Molly's mother's side of the family."

"It will either be orange, blue, lime green, light blue, or...purple...it depends on the DNA combinations for your color," Ty stated, "Typically, the tips are of either parent, but our son Ryuu has orange tips, meaning that mutations are possible."

"Mutations?" Ploosh asked, puzzled.

"Yes in some cases the genetic code for natural color of ink can have small changes to it that may result in combinations not originally possible. This is actually how many of the possible color combinations that exists today. Sky blue for example is a fairly recent color mutation derived from the medium blue color, a sign of this being the tips being a combination of pink and purple instead of simply being a darker blue," Molly answered him as a thought suddenly came to her, " hmm...I wonder if the mutation affects abilities..."

"Yes, it does. Abilities are even more genetically unstable than colors," Ty adding on to her explanation.

"Hmm...you learn something new everyday I guess," Ploosh commented.

"Yeah..." Vybe agreed just before letting out a yawn, "I'm going to go get ready for bed..." she got up with the eggs in her arms.

"Okay, honey," Ty responded as he kisses her on the cheek.

"Yeah...I think we should go get some rest as well," Squil agreed as he placed his video game controller up on a shelf.

"Oh right! Vybe said me and Squil could share the secret room or something like that but we don't know where that is."

"I found it only a week ago. Let me just..." getting up Ty walked over to one of the book shelves. Tugging on the sides of it caused to slide over and reveal another room behind it. The style reminded Molly very much of an ancient culture known as the Japanese she had learned about when she was younger. Without looking real hard she could already see that there was a couch in the room, "there you go!"

"Thanks Ty," Molly said before turning to Ploosh and Inka, "you said you'd take the couch in the living room?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine with that," Inka answered as Ploosh wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Now, if any of you get too cold, I can turn up the heat output for the individual rooms," Vybe said as she started to climb up the stairs with the her's and Ty's eggs, "night..."

"I shall follow..." Ty said as he got up as well, "you 4 have a nice night."

"Night Ty, night Vybe," Molly stated, the other saying the same thing as the yellow and cyan Inkling head up the stairs, "Night to you too Ploosh and Inka."

"Night Cousin," Ploosh responded as she and Squil walk towards the secret room and slide the shelf back into place, "Now that they are gone..."

"Don't even think about Ploosh. Just because I agreed to share the couch does not mean I want to-" she suddenly yelped loudly before falling into Ploosh's arm, fear very visible in her purple eyes.

"What the Squid?! What wrong Inka?" Ploosh quickly ask as he fell backwards onto the couch from Inka's sudden added weight in his arms.

"Sorry...I think I must have stepped on some ink or something. But it certainly was cold..."

"What?! Ink isn't cold the only substance I can think of that gets cold is..." he stopped when the sound of someone running down the stairs grabbed his attention, "...pretend you're asleep Inka."

"What? But why would I...?" she started to ask before the green Inkling had pulled her down the rest of the way onto the couch. Wrapping his arms around her he prevented her from getting back up. She opened her mouth in protest before with a slight twitch of her ears she heard the same thing that Ploosh had leaning back into him she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing so that she looked she was asleep.

Leaning up against the couch he did the same but kept one of his eyes open to see who was coming down.

Shortly afterwards Ty walked down the last few steps of the stairs and walked over to the table to grab a phone. Turning he was about to head back up the stairs when he froze and quickly looked down at the ground. Ploosh couldn't see what he was looking at but tilting his ear forward he was just barely able to hear what he said.

"I know what's about to happen tonight..." he looked over to where the secret room was behind the bookshelf.

Several seconds later he headed back up the stairs with phone in hand. It wasn't until he was out of sight and his footsteps had faded into nothing before Inka moved, "What on Terra was he talking about?"

"Who knows, but hopefully we'll get answers tomorrow."

"Yeah," snuggling closer up to him she wrapped her arms around him, "but for now let's just focus on getting some sleep."

"I agree," with a yawn he leaned once again back into the couch, "and relax...I wasn't going to do anything to you anyway...I'm too tired for that."

"Good," Inka mumbled before passing out. Ploosh followed soon after her.

* * *

"Well...this is certainly interesting," Squil commented as he looked around the room.

"At least Ty and Vybe were willing to let us stay in their house," Molly pointed out as she pulled the couch out to its fullest extention before spreading out some sheets they had found in a chest in the corner, "they could have easily refused."

"Yes...they could have...just like whatever agreement you made to come here."

"What?"

"Molly it doesn't take much to figure out that something must have occurred that made you want to come here. What did Ty say that made you want to come? Did he need you for something?"

"Squil..."

"Molly, I'm serious the fact that you never told me about him is making me find it hard to trust the guy and the fact that he is the same age as us makes it look like-"

"I didn't want to come just because he asked Squil!" she snapped, causing him to jump slightly. Taking a deep breath she looked right into his eyes, "I wanted to come to see if he could help me."

"Help you? With what?"

She bit her lip, "You know what Squil."

It took him a few seconds to realize what she was referring to. His eyes widened, "You're not still having nightmares about are you?"

"It's only a matter of time before it happens again and when it does you might not be there to stop me from hurting someone. I could possibly even hurt you."

"You wouldn't do that Molly."

She didn't look at him for a minute, "As far we know..."

"You think it has something to do with your ability?"

"It has to, my eyes were glowing like when I use my Changeling ability but I've never felt like what I did when I killed Octavious before. I wasn't myself then...and that scares me Squil," tears started to form at the corners of her eyes.

"Hey its okay," wrapping his arms around her he pulled her into a hug as soft sobs shook her frame, "I'll always be right beside you no matter what gets thrown at us."

She looked up directly into his eyes, "You sure?"

"Of course, nothing is going to hurt my wife if I have anything to say about it."

"I'm not technically your wife yet Squil."

"Close enough," giving her one last squeeze he pulled her away from him, "now we should probably get some rest. If you really want I can sleep on the floor, Vybe and Ty never have to-"

"No," pulling on his shirt she yanked him towards her and the couch behind them. Landing with a soft thud he ended up on top of her on the bed. Her face turned slightly red, "I, um..."

"I get it Molly," rolling off of her he pulled the sheets out from under him and crawled underneath them, "I won't leave."

"Promise?"

"Cross my hearts and hope I never get splatted," he answered with a smile as he did the all too familiar gesture on his chest, "now are you coming under or not? Because if you think that I'm gonna let you sleep on the floor than..."

She yanked the sheet out from under her and crawled into the bed as well, a look of determination on her face, "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"Figured not," he kissed her on the lips before letting his head fall back on the pillow, "goodnight Molly."

"Goodnight Squil," closing her eyes she only just barely registered Squil suddenly starting to shiver under the sheets before she fell asleep.


	31. Freezing Point

_Author's notes: Ugh this still turned out to be longer than I anticipated but at least it's not over 9000 words like last time..._

 _Questions are alway welcome as well as your reviews._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Chapter 31: Freezing Point**

Finding herself on the floor was not what Molly expected to find when she had woken up in the morning.

Groaning slightly she slowly sat up and looked over at the opposite side of the bed to see Squil still laying there.

"Squil?"

He didn't move.

"Squil? Come on I know you're not that deep of a sleeper."

He still didn't move.

"Squil...are you alright?" she started to stand when she notice that the temperature of the room was far lower than she recalled it being last night when they went to bed. Slowly creeping around the couch she went to over to Squil's side.

Squil was frozen.

Frost covered his entire body but was highly concentrated on his blue tentacles which looked almost white at the tips because of it. He wasn't shivering, he wasn't even moving at all. If she hadn't looked carefully enough she would have thought he wasn't even breathing.

"Oh my...Squil..." she grabbed hold of one of his hands only to instantly let go and wince as she felt numbing cold shoot through her fingertips, "...when Vybe said the body would freeze I didn't think she met literally."

Seconds later he suddenly shuddered violently, the frost covering his body covered him even more throughly for a few seconds before vanishing like it never was there. The only frost still present was on the tips of Squil's tentacles which were pale blue instead of their standard dark blue.

"Squil? Are you...?" Molly started to ask when his eyes flew open.

Yelping in surprise he partially leaped backwards and nearly fell from the other side of the bed in the process. Gasping for breath he stared at her wide eyed, "Molly...why do you have a nasty tendency to find the worst possible ways to wake me up?"

"But Squil...you were...were..." she continued to stumble over the words that refused at first to come out.

"I was what Molly?"

She took a deep breath to calm herself before she spoke, "...You were covered in frost Squil."

His eyes grew even wider, "I was covered in...what?"

"Frost, like ice, and you were cold to the touch."

He stared at his hands in complete disbelief for several seconds before looking up at her again, "How long ago was this?"

"Just a few minutes ago, your tentacle tips are still covered though...and are a different color..."

"What?!" reaching up to his ponytail he pulled his hair band out and allowed his two tentacles to fall down next to his face. Bringing one of them into eyesight he was able to quickly see what she was referring to, "but how...and why?"

"Vybe said you might have your ability manafest during the night but she forgot to tell me-"

"That's what you two were talking about in the kitchen, wasn't it?" he didn't sound mad but he didn't sound too happy either.

She bit her lip with one of her fangs, "Yes it was."

He Looked at her in silence for a few seconds before sighing in defeat, "Does Ty..."

"I'm not sure if she told him or not," she admitted, "Squil...you're not...mad, are you?"

"What for?" asked as he allowed his tentacle to fall from his hand, "You clearly were trying to not freak me out farther than I was already. If I were in your shoes I probably would have done the same."

"Really?"

"Yes," he replied with a small smile, "I did say I promised to protect you last night didn't I?"

She smiled back at him, "You did."

"Good. The others are probably wondering why we aren't out yet," he said warily, "we should probably get going."

"But what about your tentacle tips? They're still..." Molly started to say when his tentacle tips suddenly faded back to their normal color and the frost had disappeared as it was never there, "...or not..."

"Huh..." he looked at them again for a few seconds somewhat worryingly before he tied them back up, "I guess we don't have to explain to the others why my tentacles are a different color now."

"Should we still...?"

"How about not," he quickly answered, fear having entered into his eyes slightly, "I don't want the others to freak out."

She nodded, "Alright, if that's what you want to do."

"It is."

Letting a shakey breath Molly walked over to the sliding door and pulled it open.

Standing in the kitchen Ty, Vybe, Inka, Ploosh and Hanako were all in the middle of some form of conversation when the group quickly spotted the pair.

"Good morning everyone," Molly quickly said, taking a quick rapid glance next to her however made her realize that Squil was currently staring at the floor and avoiding everyone's gaze. Trying not to draw too much attention to it Molly continued, "everyone have a good night's rest?"

"Yep," Vybe answered as she got to work on cracking some eggs, "Hey, what do you two want on your omelettes?"

"Just the omelets by themeselves with some toast if you don't mind Vybe," Molly quickly replied as she heard her stomach softly growl at the thought of food.

Squil on the other hand remained silent as he continued to look at the floor. Slightly nudging his shoulder he quickly came out of his daze, "Huh, What? I'm sorry was someone talking to me?"

"Yeah, Vybe ask what you wanted on your eggs," Ploosh started to say, "...unless you're still feeling crummy from-"

"I'm fine! There is nothing wrong with me!" Squil suddenly snapped, causing the others to jump a little from his outburst.

His face immediately took on a more red hue, "sorry...I meant to say that I'm actually feeling a lot better. A good few hours of sleep must have been what I needed," he then turned to Vybe, "and I would like some cheese on mine Vybe."

"Alright! I will get to work on it!" she responded with a grin as she started to mix the ingredients together. Molly however couldn't help but notice that as soon as the cyan Inkling had turned away she glanced over at Ty who looked at her in return. After looking at each other for a few seconds they nodded as if they were agreeing on something and went back to work making breakfast.

"Say Squil, what is your fighting style?" Ty asked a few minutes later.

"Well I prefer to use a Tentatek Splattershot, which true doesn't give me as much distance as some other weapons but it still packs some punch and my tactics include laying low until my opponents come to me and surprising them and if I get into a tight situation the Inkzooka special hasn't failed me often in getting me out of it alive. The suction bombs also work great to get opponents to back off."

"Ah, so your more about ambush tactics...nice, that could work really well on the battlefield," Ty said, "I also like that, but I'm more of a hit-and-run and stealth person. A sword does the job well."

"That was more of my style Ty," Molly stated, "each of us had slightly different fighting style and by working together our Splatoon team stayed pretty high in the ranks of the Junior League."

"Funny how that works," Ty commented, "food is nearly ready."

"Sweet," Ploosh cried out before liking his lips in anticipation.

"I see you're feeling way better now," Hanako commented as she placed some potatoes on the table.

"Why is everyone suddenly worried about me now? Squil ended up fine as he said and honesty I don't feel any of the nausea from yesterday anymore. I'm fine too!"

"We weren't doubting your condition Ploosh," Inka insisted as she looked up into his bright green eyes with her purple ones, "we care about you Ploosh...especially me."

"Aw, Inka," he then planted a kiss on her lips.

Several minutes later the eggs were finished and Ty placed a plate of toast onto the table before sitting down himself, "Mmmmm...I can't wait."

Inka then turned to Squil and Molly "So what are your plans today you two?"

"Well I think we are going to take Vybe's advice and try to seek out some clothes so that we're not taking theirs. We'll probably try to find a bite to eat there so we'll probably won't be back until late afternoon," Molly explained between bites of food, "what's your plans?"

"Same as yours but I think me and Ploosh are going to focus more on exploration. I really am curious to see how different this place is from back home."

"Well, I need to do some renovations on my own hero suit," Ty stated as he ate his eggs, "The hydrophobic coating needs to be redone...and many other small things."

"There are some streets you will want to avoid, Inka and Ploosh. Specifically the east harbor. Other than that, you should be fine," Vybe chimed in after Ty, "To be honest...I wouldn't be surprised if that massive flying thing flies around over there...but who knows."

"You mean Chrysalis?" Ty asked her.

"If that's what it's called, yes." Vybe answered, albeit a little uneasily.

"Chrysalis? Is that like the Peace Walker?" Molly asked. She hadn't heard there were others like the one in their dream so hearing otherwise made her feel nervous.

"Yes...it is largely different because it is quite literally a flying rail cannon...it can lift Peace Walker easily...and it sings as it carry's cargo. Though we shouldn't see it today or tomorrow at all...other than that, not sure yet."

"Hopefully, you won't need it at all later on," Vybe said as she sighed in relief.

"Hmm...well Ty if you need help with that hydrophobic coating on your suit later I'm sure I could help," Molly offered, "I had to find a way to make mine completely waterproof bec-" she froze as realized what she was about to say. Something that would surely lead to questions she wasn't sure she wanted to answer yet, "...uh, well...to be on the safe side."

Eventually after a few more random conversations and the food having disappeared from all of their plates Ty stood up from the table, "May I have all of your plates?"

Each of them handed their plates to him as he placed them in the dishwasher. With a stretch Ploosh got up from his seat, "Well, we should probably get going then, ready Inka?"

"You bet," she answered him as she got up as well, "see you all some time later?"

"Yep," Molly answered. Squil simply nodded as the two headed towards the door.

"See you all in a bit!" Ty called after them as they left.

"We should probably be heading out as well. Bye Ty, bye Vybe," Molly said as both she and Squil got up from the table.

"Bye, have a good time!" Vybe said as she carried more dishes to be washed into the kitchen.

Heading out the door the two stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind them. It was only then that Molly dared to speak again, "I didn't want to ask in front of everyone but...are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he sighed, "I don't know what came over me when Ploosh asked me if I still wasn't feeling okay."

"Perhaps it was your ability messing with your emotions, something tells me that most abilities might have some effect over emotions and vice versa."

"Well either way don't worry Molly I'm fine. No silly little ability is going to get the better of me," he gently nuzzled her face with his own, "now come on, I don't want to have to borrow Ty's clothing the rest of the time we're here," he walked over to the elevator.

Still somewhat worried she took a deep breath before getting into the elevator with him.

* * *

"Do you think the blue shirt or mint green one looks better Squil?"

"Huh?" looking away from the window Squil quickly looked Molly up and down as she showed off the before mentioned shirts with a pair of jeans she had found in a different store, "um...I think both are fine Molly," he said but he still didn't seem to be completely there when he had said it.

Molly groaned as she threw her hands up in the air with defeat, "If I had known it was going to be this much of a pain to get your opinion then-"

"No Molly it's not that," he insisted as he walked up to her, "I'm sorry if I seem really distracted right no, I'm not trying to be rude," pulling her into his arms he hugged her, "being here reminds me so much of being back home but I know it's not home even though-"

"Even though it looks almost exactly the same, I know," Molly mumbled into his shirt as they continued to stand there. Probably several Inklings were staring at them through the window but neither of them cared anymore, "I want to go back to the way things were too."

"Before what happened with Octavious or after?"

She frowned, "Did you have to bring that up?"

"Molly you know sooner or later you will have to get over that."

"But I killed someone Squil."

"Yes, but you're killing me by continuing to dwell on it, this has to stop."

"But what happens if I lose control again?"

"You won't."

"How can be so certain?"

"Because I know you Molly and I know you would never try to harm me or anyone else you loved."

She fell silent for a moment, "This is starting to sound a lot like last night."

"And I meant every word I said last night. Your ability makes you special Molly but it wasn't the Changeling I fell in love with all those years ago. It was the girl behind the ability that I fell in love with and that's never going to change," he pulled her in even more as she rested her head on his chest while he gently rested his chin on top of her head.

"Oh! Cute couple I see and with much freshness too!"

Pulling away from each other they turned to see a jellyfish looking up at them, smiling more with his eyes then his mouth since on most jellyfish it was difficult to see their mouth, "Thank you Jelonzo that's very kind of you."

"Jelonzo cares not for the thanking, only for the buying you fresh couple do," the jellyfish admitted as he looked at the clothing the pair had already picked out.

"Alright Jelonzo, we understand. How much do we owe you?"

"234500 coins!"

Squil cringed, "Ouch...I was hoping it would be less."

"Shop keeping not cheap. Must get what Jelonzo can from fresh customers."

"Alright, alright...I understand..." pulling out his wallet he pulled out several gold colored coins and two or three silver coins. Sighing slightly he handed them to Jelonzo who gave him back five bronze coins, "that was most of the money I had on me."

"I'm sure we'll find some way to earn a few coins back."

"Let's hope so," slipping the clothing into their bags on their backs they walked out of the store and towards the main Plaza. The Plaza looked pretty much same, even the Great Zapfish was still smiling down at them as they walked across the Plaza. The only difference being was no Inklings were going in and out of the Turf War lobby.

"It looks like Vybe was right about the lobby being closed."

"Yeah, but why?"

"Vybe said Ty knows but something tells me he won't say."

"Maybe it has to do with the war that is brewing."

Molly shuddered, "Let's hope not," walking down a side alley and continuing down the path afterwards eventually led them toward a boardwalk which ended at a pier, "war never ends completely in satisfaction for either side."

"Yeah...but that doesn't stop people from trying," Squil sighed as he leaned on the railing of the pier, "there are probably quite a few people that will do it for their own personal gain."

"You can say that again bub," a voice sneered as the sharp cold blade of a knife suddenly was at Molly's throat.

Squil whipped around in less then a second as he cried out in fear, "Molly!" he then directed his gaze at her attacker, having immediately turned dark and cold, "let her go!"

"I promise I want hurt her if you give me what I want."

"We don't have any money," Molly quickly insisted before the thief brought the knife closer to her neck. The feeling of something trickling down it told her that the knife had actually nicked her, causing her to bleed a little.

"Quiet lass, we wouldn't want this knife to slip again now would we?" he breathed into her ear, sending shivers down her spine as she tried as best as possible not to move.

"I said let her go," Squil repeated as he took a step towards them. The way he said it was the same way he had spoken to Whark when he had pinned her to a wall on her first day in Inkopolis. Back then she almost thought he was going to punch Whark. She very much doubted this was going to be the case this time but not for the same reason.

"One more step and I slit her throat," the attacker hissed. Even though he was trying to not seem intimidated by Squil Molly still was able to briefly feel him falter with his grip on the blade.

"I'm giving you one last chance to walk away while you still can."

"Make me squid!" the attacker barked.

The once gentle spray of ocean water that had been breaking just below the pier suddenly rose up in a great crest like it had done so a couple times before but instead of immediately falling back down it froze in place. Suspended above the pier like it was frozen in a moment time.

Squil had meanwhile regained the frosty appearence on his tentacles as they turned pale blue at the tips. Even though their appearance hadn't changed his blue eyes literally seemed to be as cold as ice as he continued to glare at the attacker. A soft growl from him could just barely be heard over the sound of water crashing against the rocky cliffs.

"Holy squid..." the Inkling swore as he released Molly from his grip. Messaging her neck she turned around to see that it was an Inkling probably in his late twenties with sage green tentacles and gray eyes. Those same gray eyes currently were filled with fear as he slowly backed away from her and Squil, "what strange sorcery is this?" he gasped, never taking his gaze off of Squil.

"I gave you a chance to run away and you refused," he stated in barely controlled anger, "now you will have to face the consequences of doing such."

Just as quickly as the waves had frozen they were instantly liquid once more and immediately crashed onto the pier and rushed towards them.

The green Inkling barely had time to cry out in fear before the water had gone over him. Seconds later the a green ghost of a squid was seen flying off towards Inkopolis in search of a respawn point.

Gasping in shock from the cold water that had gone past her Molly shook some of the water off of herself before turning to see Squil still standing where he had been before. His entire body was dripping wet as he continued to stare where the Inkling had been before drowning.

"Squil...?" slowly she walked up to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and he finally looked at her as he came out of his daze, "it's over...we're safe."

"Molly...I-I'm sorry, I didn't think-"

"You couldn't have known Squil. You've never used your ability before so you wouldn't have known how powerful it would be..."

"That doesn't excuse the fact that if it weren't an Inkling I could have killed that person."

Her frown deepened, "Now you know how I felt after killing Octavious."

He gritted his teeth, "You had no control of yourself at that time, I did just now. There is no excuse for what I did to that Inkling."

"Squil..." she started to say before a short gale of wind rushed past them. That combined with her clothes being sopping wet from the seawater immediately caused her to shiver violently.

Squil immediately aquire a worried look for her, "We need to get you dry before you get sick, come on Molly," wrapping his arms around her he directed her back towards the alley and also towards what Molly was slightly hoping would be somewhere she could get warm and dry clothes.

* * *

Aside from a glare from a janitorial Inkling as the dripping pair walked across the lobby to the elevators they didn't get much notice from anybody as they made it up to the floor that Ty and Vybe's apartment was. Holding Molly close Squil used his free hand to open the door as they stumbled into the apartment.

Whatever had been happening in the apartment was immediately forgotten as Ty, Vybe, Inka and Ploosh stared at Molly and Squil for several seconds as they came in. Vybe was the first one to move as she quickly dashed upstairs.

"What the squittle happened?" Ty asked.

"W-w-we had a little bit o-of an accident at a p-pier," Molly started to explain but the chattering of her teeth was making it difficult for to speak.

"I'm sorry Molly, I didn't mean for it to happen!" Squil quickly apologized for the umpteenth time since they had left the pier at the edge of the city. He pulled her closer to try to give her some warmth but his actions didn't seem to be helping her even though he wasn't even showing the slightest sign of being cold.

Running back down the stairs Vybe returned with some towels which she immediately gave to them, "Say Squil...why haven't you melted yet? I mean, I know why Molly won't, but..."

Up until that point the thought hadn't even occurred to Molly but as she stood there partially wrapped in a towel, still shivering, she had finally had time to think about such things. Under normal circumstances Vybe was correct that like the sage green Inkling Squil should have also drowned and dissolved into nothing, forcing him to seek out a respawn point to revive himself.

But these weren't normal circumstances they were dealing with.

"I-I don't know," he then look down at his soaked clothes before grabbing another towel from Vybe to wrap around Molly, "I really don't understand why I haven't..."

"Wait...how would you know that Molly won't melt Vybe?" Inka asked her suspiciously.

"If you remember, Ty has done extensive research on abilities. Changeling, when a human's DNA is active even partially, will grant water resistance," Vybe explained, "there are only a few abilities in all that grant water immunity. There's only one ability that is like that for blue ink...Ice."

"Because ice is water but in a solid state, users are immune to water, and as such, won't melt on contact with water," Ty added.

"S-so you know I've been human before I-I-I g-guess," Molly barely stuttered out as she continued to shiver.

"Wait...Squil has an ability?" Ploosh asked in shock, "since when?"

"Judging by the fact that A: you have the Changeling ability, and B: you would have still melted without having bitten a human it wasn't that hard to figure out," she then turned to Ploosh and Inka, "And Ploosh, you and Inka may possibly be next...when, I have no idea, but it can happen."

"What?! But I don't want power over plants!" Ploosh moaned worryingly.

Inka immediately snickered under her breath at his reaction.

"You probably wouldn't either Inka!"

"Perhaps, but I'm not green so I'd probably not get that one," Inka answered him as she tried to fight back her laughter.

"Carp, Jericho!" turning her head Molly quickly saw the source of Ty's dismay being Jericho who had snuck into the room without anyone noticing him. The young green Inkling was looking down at a blackish pile of sludge on the counter, "that was the meat cutting knife..." the yellow Inkling sighed.

"Um...what?" Ploosh couldn't help but stared at Jericho, "what on Terra did you do dude?"

"I touched it?" Jericho said as he turned to look up at Ploosh, "acids do that."

"Yeah...not only that, but I know you do CQC. I saw that military knife..." Ty replied which caused Jericho to quickly look at him surprised. Patting him on the head Ty leaned closer to the 14 year old, "you and me have a lot in common."

"Acids? You can do stuff with acids Jericho?" Ploosh asked him still partially in disbelief.

"Y-yeah..." Jericho answered him.

"So...I'm either going to be someone who controls plants or someone who does stuff with acids?" Ploosh then groaned, "I'm doomed..."

"That's assuming if you have an ability Ploosh. You might not get one," Inka offered, trying to make him feel better. Ploosh's continued groaning, however, proved that it didn't make him feel any better about it.

As Vybe guided Molly and Squil to the table as they continued to try to get dry Inka decided to ask a question Molly had admittedly wondered herself as Ty went back to working on what must have been dinner, "So...what are the possible abilities for me and Ploosh?"

"For purple...Fortune; which allows the control over precious metals like Gold, siver, platinum, Iridium, etc. Heightened senses; which amps up all senses in times of need. For Green, There is Alchemist; what Jericho has, which allows the control over Acids and poisons and a common fallback is a crumbly attitude. Botanist; which is what you saw Hanako using, allows control over plant-based life."

"With Botanist, we still can't figure out what chemical reactions cause the type of control they have over plants," Vybe added, "and we still have yet to find a counter to Alchemist..."

"Those are certainly interesting abilities Ty," Inka commented, "but...how will we know which one we'll get?"

"No way to know until the acceptance process starts," he then looked over at Squil, "and Squil...I hate to ask you this...but do you mind showing me how well so far you can control it?"

"Uh...sure," he said somewhat hesitantly, "but what do you want me to freeze?"

Walking into the kitchen for a moment he came back and placed a cup of water on the table, "This. I am checking a few things for your own safety...I've seen accidental suicides because Ice users became too reckless and out of control. I may be able to fix an amputated arm, but I can't fix death." Ty said, he then stared intently at the glass over water.

Swallowing nervously Squil then stared intently at the water for several seconds until the tips of his tentacles became pale blue instead of their usual dark blue and shimmered like they have frost on them. After several more seconds the water in the glass froze solid and frost then formed on the surface of the table that the cup was sitting on.

"Mhmm...yours seems to be more or less very focused. Most others tend to be crazy the first few days," Ty said. His tentacles twitch a few times before he returned to the burgers he was working on.

Hey that's a good thing for Squil, right?" Molly asked as she finally started to feel warm.

"Yep, it is. Through a bit of training, we can make it work faster and control the concentration of the affected area."

"Well as long as it help prevent what happened today from happening again," Squil said as he hugged Molly close to him, the frosty effect on his tentacles disappearing and the pale blue changing back to his normal color.

"What you experienced was the acceptance process. It's common for the body to lock-up and some form of your ability surrounding you for a period of time," Vybe explained, "my ability, Generator, sorta makes the user into a Tesla coil..."

"Did you have trouble controlling yours Vybe in the beginning?" Squil asked, "yours sound like it might be the one most similar to mine."

"Ehm..." she started to blush "somewhat..."

"You did nearly kill Jelanzo once..." Ty pointed out to her.

"But he wasn't paying attention!" Vybe mischievously whined.

"It wouldn't be the first time I've heard someone try to kill one of the shopkeepers," Ploosh smirked as he looked over at Molly.

"That fish was a total jerk to me my first day in Inkopolis and that has nothing to do with my ability Ploosh!"

"You still got to admit it was funny seeing you throwing insults at a tiny loud mouthed clown fish."

"Oh dear cod...that little buttmunch?" Vybe moaned. "I know I have a good lookin' lower body, but he doesn't need to announce it to everyone!"

"Which you still did-" Ty started to say before getting a glare from Vybe.

"At least he didn't call you a screeching bat fish that had orange ink dumped on their head," Molly half muttered.

"What the heck is a bat fish?" Jericho asked.

"Don't ask Jericho," Molly answered him sadly.

"Fiiiiiiine...Aunt Molly..." he said, causing the others to stare at him wide eyed, "what?"

"Ehm...'Aunt Molly'? Where'd that come from?" Vybe asked him.

"I dunno..." he answered as he scratched the back of his head, "it just sounds...natural...I guess..."

"I uh...I never thought I would hear that for at least a while," Molly admitted hesitantly, "but...it does have a nice kind of ring to it..." she smiled a little as she started to warmed up to the idea.

Walking out of the kitchen Ty placed a plate of burgers down on the table, "Enjoy with no remorse," Ty said, sitting down.

Immediately everyone grabbed one and started to eat.

"These are pretty good Ty," Ploosh commented between bites of his burger.

"Thankth," Ty said, his mouth somewhat full.

"So...you now know I've interacted with humans," Molly sighed as she looked down sadly at her partially eaten food, "I should've figured it would be revealed sooner or later."

"It's all about remembering the details," Vybe said, licking her fingers, "and a bit of guess work...and that's abo-" she suddenly froze, her tentacles sparking a bit, and it was slowly became more and more intense with each passing second.

"Jericho! Jumper cables!" Ty shouted.

Getting up from his seat the young Inkling went over to a box and pulled out a pair of jumper cables and handled them to Ty. He placed one on each of Vybe's tentacles and then connected the other ends to into what looked like a wall socket converter. Seconds later Vybe started to move again, "Crap...didn't know that it would have been so soon..."

"What the Squid was that?" Ploosh asked.

"Our bodies work through a substance called Natural Energy. Generator, the ability, makes more electricity out of it than normal. This means that the rate it can store the electricity is faster...but an overabundance of natural energy can make generator inklings freeze up and start releasing electricity it can't store in time," Ty explained to him, "this has only happened once before...and that was a ways back...and if I'm right...something big is either coming, or it's just a natural energy wave."

"Does it hurt?" Molly asked worryingly.

"No...but I can never remember anything from my time in that state," Vybe answered her.

"Hm...sounds vaguely like what happened when Molly ki-" Ploosh started to say before getting kicked in the leg by Inka under the table. He winced slightly from the pain, "I uh...never mind..."

"Though, have you ever heard of ability stages?" Ty asked the four.

Molly ears slightly pricked upward at Ty's question, "S-stages?" she had heard the term before but only once...in the notebook of a long since dead scientist that she had found when she was 15...

"The main ability is called the first stage. You go to higher forms of your ability through accumulative stress from using the ability a lot," Ty explained, "Beacon's second stage is Negative. Negative is...not something that I want to go through."

"Do all abilities have that?" Inka asked somewhat worried.

"Generator has Hyperstorm, Ice has Blizzard, Rage has Inferno...Changeling has one, but we haven't been able to research it yet." Vybe spoke up, she seemed to have mostly recovered by this point.

"Huh...I wonder why...is it because there are so few orange Inklings..." Inka said more to herself then to the others, not noticing both Squil and Molly having worried looks on their faces.

"Wait...what's Rage?" Ploosh suddenly asked, "I don't think you mentioned that one before."

"Rage is the second ability to orange, but is shared with black and red. It gives a huge spike of power when activated."

"Well I guess that explains your short temper Molly," Ploosh chjckled until he saw the glare Molly was giving him, "Oh, uh...or not," he then chuckled nervously.

"Rage is a completely different ability."

"Figured it was Ty," Molly said once she had finally stopped glaring at Ploosh, "a lot of us Colorians get mad pretty quickly. Even my older brother Marin can get fired up in a few seconds."

"I'm usually calm, but anything that has ticked my off in the past can get me riled up," Ty said, "for example, the main cause of this universe's trouble. Death, leader of the octarians at the moment. He was the result of a failed octarian experiment years ago. He took over when the queen ran away at some point. I've already killed him twice...but he's still going strong..."

"We've seen his changes: propaganda everywhere, parades, anti-octoling regime..." Vybe said, getting back to her seat, "basically, that one human leader named Hitler."

"So...this Death guy has been causing all the trouble huh?" Squil said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "and you've killed him twice? That doesn't seem possible."

"I know, Squil. I'm still wondering how he keeps coming back. There must be some sort of outside source that is keeping him alive..." Ty said before becoming silent, his mouth still moved slightly.

"He's gotten on the thought train again..." Vybe groaned, grabbing some more food.

"Is this normal?"

"When it's important to him, yes. He did this once when assembling a data converter...he also did it a lot in the labs today," Vybe answered.

"Hmm..." was all Molly said as she stared over at Ty.

"Omphalos..." Ty suddenly mumbled under his breath.

"Omphalos? What is that?"

"I don't know..." he looked up, "the name seems familiar to me...and to be honest, I'm not sure how or when I heard it..."

Molly shuddered slightly making Squil look at her worryingly, "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure...something about the word bothered me I guess..."

The room was silent for several minutes until Ty stood up from his seat, "I'm going to bed...night..."

"Oh well good night Ty," Molly replied worry still plain her face as she watched him head up the stairs.

"I'm going to have to stay down here...I can still feel myself producing a lot of electricity," Vybe replied.

"Well that's okay maybe you'll want to see something I've been wondering about as well," Inka said as a small mischievous grin came across her face.

"What are you talking about Inka?"

"Oh come on don't act all coy Molly on us, we want to see it."

"See what?"

"I think I know what they're talking about," reaching into the pocket of his new jacket he pulled out a black velvet box which had surprisingly stayed dry after their earlier dousing. Molly instantly recognized it, "it's not like we're keeping it a secret anymore."

"Oh..." Molly blushed, "I suppose we aren't."

"May I?"

She nodded as she saw him lift up the lid of the box and with delicate fingers pull out the engagement ring and place it on her finger, "there, now it's visibly official now."

"Squil..."

"Sorry Molly," he hugged her tightly before lightly kissing her on the lips, "I promise I won't make a big show of it..."

Vybe smiled as she tried to drift off the sleep when suddenly the group all felt a deep rumbling, "What was that?" Vybe asked.

"Your guess is as good as ours Vybe," Ploosh said as he and the others looked around nervously.

"Small tremors aren't uncommon in this universe...and it's usually followed by some sort of clunk..." Vybe said as a faint clunk was then heard and the rumbling stopped, "like that."

"Yeah okay...but that still doesn't make me feel any better," Molly admitted, still worried.

"Don't worry Molly...I'll protect you," Squil insisted as he held her closer. He then gently stroked her soulspot behind her ear causing her to purr for a few seconds until he stopped.

"Funny... That's the same exact one for me...Ty's is on his back," Vybe said, "funny how I'm in that mood but I'm stuck here...ah well."

"Squil's is on the base of his neck," Molly states as she reached up and stroked his soulspot in return, causing him to purr deeply in his throat, "Inka's is on her back and Ploosh...actually I don't think you ever told me..." she then turned to her cousin.

"There's a reason for that Molly," he said crossing his arms over his chest, "I don't particularly like the weakened feeling I end up with when someone does stroke my soulspot..."

"You told me," Inka replied.

"What?! No I didn't!"

"You were half asleep when you said it," she insisted.

"Prove it!"

"Fine," lunging towards him playfully he barely had time to react before she had a hold of his ponytail and with a slight yank had caused the hairband to come out. Once his two tentacles were free she started to rub the tip of one of them, causing him to at first stiffen in his seat before he succumbed to the relaxing feeling and started to purr, "still don't believe me?"

"I'm gonna get you for this later Inka," he replied.

"I'd like to see you try," the grin from before returned on her face.

"Something tells me that you two will have eggs sooner than Molly and Squil are," Vybe said as she started to make a bed for herself out of some of the chairs.

"Nah, I just like giving Ploosh a hard time," Inka admitted as she continued to rub Ploosh's tentacle, "honestly they are way farther down that path then we are, we only started dating two years ago."

"Just don't rub the soulspot for too long...from what I found out from Ty, it eventually causes specific hormones to flow about...and we don't want any accidents running around the house yet." Vybe said in a tone that was only half serious about the topic at hand.

Slightly pouting Inka stopped rubbing Ploosh's tentacle and Ploosh immediately sank into his seat in a half sleep daze with a smile of contentment on his face, "I suppose you have a point Vybe."

"The part I am serious about is the hormones."

"Ploosh...are you okay?" Molly asked, looking down at him.

"Yeah...I'm fine...but Inka is really going to get it later," he half sighed, half grumbled to her.

"What is she going to get?" Vybe asked, as a mischievous grin formed on her face.

"I'll think of something...too tired to do so now..."

"Speaking of tired..." Vybe started to say before she let out a yawn. Laying her head down on her makeshift bed she instantly fell asleep.

"Well I suppose we should all gets some rest too," Molly said turning to Inka, "good night you two."

"Night Molly, night Squil, see you in the morning," grabbing a blanket Inka covered up Ploosh who was pretty much already asleep. She then wrapped herself in a blanket and plopped into one of the other unoccupied chairs.

Sliding the secret room's door open the Molly and Squil walked in, closing it behind them, "Squil did you hear what-"

"What Ty said about the multiple stages of the abilities yes I did."

"Do you think...?"

"I don't know Molly," he replied as he pulled her close to calm down her growing fear, "but no matter the case I'll stand by you through thick and thin."

"Thank you Squil," she mumbled into his shirt.

"We should sleep now Molly."

"Yeah," the two of them crawled onto the bed and under the sheets, "night Squil."

"Goodnight Molly," he placed his arm near her head trying not to touch her when she caught him off guard by wrapping her arms around him and snuggled closer to him.

"Please don't freeze this time Squil. You don't make a very good Inklingcicle."

A smile briefly came onto his face, "Don't worry...I won't," he answered before the pair passed out.


	32. A Moment of Peace Amongst Chaos

_Author's notes: Okay I got a little bit of a confession to make. I kinda lied about something a long time ago...what you may ask? You'll see soon enough..._

 _Also after this chapter I should be able to more readily updated since I'll be on winter break for the rest of December which will give me more free time to write. I appreciate your patience over the last month or two with how slowly I've been able to update._

 _Don't forget to review and leave any questions you have for me._

 _Enjoy._

 **Chapter 32: A Moment of Peace Amongst the Chaos**

"How could you let this happen Marin?"

Marlin winced inwardly as he tried to look the lime green Inkling in front of him straight in the eye, "I'm sorry mother but there was-"

"...There was nothing you could do, I know. You said it twice already," May Colorian spat out at him angrily even though she was on the verge of tears, "it's just...I thought I had lost her once, I don't want that to happen again."

"I understand mother...I don't want to lose my sister either," it had been about to 48 hours since Molly and the rest of the team had mysteriously vanished without a trace while investigating the worry of a tribe of peaceful Octarians. He himself had gone with Callie and Marie to investigate the place they had last been seen in but so far all the searching had proven fruitless in finding clues as to where they had gone.

It was only earlier that day that Marlin had finally decided to tell his mother. Since she had decided to move to Inkopolis a few years ago it didn't take her much to meet him at Octo Valley but telling her had still been difficult for him, "where are the other agents anyway?"

"There both out doing something..." Marlin started to say when he suddenly realized what she had asked, "Wait...but how do you...?"

"Marin..." she sighed as she gave him a small wry smile, "...your father, Walter Colorian, was an agent himself when I met him when we were young. To be perfectly honest it didn't really surprise me when you told me that you were an agent when you contacted me this morning...but when you told me Molly was one too..."

"Yeah...I was kind of surprised too mom," he awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he let out a short nervous chuckle, "but I gotta say she makes a pretty good agent."

"I can second that statement," a voice cried out.

Turning to the source of the voice Marlin saw Callie as she popped around the corner of the old ramshackle shack that had stood at the edge of Octo Valley as long as Marlin had visited it, "if it weren't for her we would have lost a lot of good young Inklings four years ago."

"Callie!?" he exclaimed, not even trying to hide the identity of the ex-pop star. She wasn't even wearing her normal agent disguise currently, but instead a simple coral pink shirt and black pants, "I thought you were going to help me with explaining things to my mother?"

"I am," she insisted, but something about the way she continued to stand by the shack implied something else was going on.

He tilted his head slightly in puzzlement at her, "Callie?"

"I'm sorry Marlin," she immediately frowned as the awkwardness between them grew, "but I felt that someone else deserved to know what was going on."

"What...?"

"Can I come out Callie?"

Callie turned her gaze over to the source of the new voice which was behind the shack, "Yes Ms. Walker...you can come out now."

The sound of feet walking over the ground came to Marlin's ears only a second before the figure appeared from behind the shack and looked at them with a slightly worried expression.

Instead of tentacles she had a strange strand like substance that was long enough to fall down to the small of her back that was red in color and her ears were round and flat instead of being pointed like an Inkling's ears. She also didn't have three sharp fangs, nor black markings around her eyes which were dark green in color. Even though Marlin was at his full height being 21 now she still was a good two or three inches taller then him.

"Y-you must be Marlin, Molly's older brother," she partially stammered out as she smiled and held out her hand to him, "Callie told me about you on the way."

"Um...hi?" he hesitantly took the hand as she gently shook it. Looking behind her he raised an eyebrow at Callie, "Cal...who is this?"

"This is the human that took care of Molly when she was a child," she explained, "I figured if we do find her and the others it would be nice to have them see each other again."

"So...she is still hanging out with with those three huh?" Lily asked the orange Inkling.

"Uh...actually she and Squil are dating," he lowered his ears slightly in embarrassment at having to tell the one who took care of his little sister that she wasn't a kid anymore.

"They are?" she smiled, "I had a feeling those two would...they seemed like they could be compatible."

"I guess so..." he chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You...are the one who took care of Molly?" May Colorian finally asked after standing in silence this whole time. She took a step towards Lily but still kept her distance. Marlin couldn't blame her, until his sister had told him about living among humans and showed her human form to him he didn't believe humans existed either.

"Yes I am...are you her biological mother?"

"Yes," May nodded.

The two stayed in silence for a solid minute before Lily spoke, "I can see the resemblance, she looks very much like you."

"T-thank you...but she acts very much like her father. Stubborn at times, but she has a kind heart."

"I'm sure she does. Where is her father?"

"I'm sorry...but he passed away a long time ago..."

"Oh...I'm so sorry for your loss Mrs...?"

"Colorian, May Colorian. My late husband's name was Walter."

"Lillian Walker, but you can just call me Lily," Lily offered, "I never married but I felt like your daughter was the child I never had. I appreciate the time I'd had with her," looking around she scanned the valley, "where is she anyway?"

All eyes immediately fell on Marlin as he stood as still as statue under their gaze.

"I, uh...I..." a lump threatened to shut his throat as he tried to speak. Memories from a few short days ago immediately causing the lump to grow steadily larger.

" _Is this what you wanted to tell me? That because you're a coward and can't handle your feelings it may be another whole year or so before we see you again?_ "

" _You have no idea how much this has tormented me Molly over the last four years. Please...you've got to understand Molly._ "

" _Well then I'll let mom know you said hello._ "

This was the last conversation he'd had with Molly. Whether it was actually his fault that the team had disappeared he didn't know but he couldn't bring himself to think it wasn't impossible.

He shook his head at them as he started to walk away from the three women before him, "...I'm sorry, I can't do this..." he took another two steps backwards before turning around and running full out.

"Marlin? Wait!" a hand wrenched him back around to face a very confused Callie, "what was that?"

"I'm sorry Callie but I can't talk to those two, not right now. Explaining once was hard enough but in front of both of them..." he might never be able to speak to them, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"But why? Did something happen before when I was getting-"

"No, it wasn't anything between me and my mother."

"Then was it something between you and someone else?"

He tried to pull his arm free but she kept her grip firm, forcing him to continue to stare into her gold colored eyes.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Your actions prove otherwise Marlin," she partially loosened her grip on him, "please...if it's something I can help you with..."

"No, it's not," he finally pulled his arm, "I'm pretty sure you can't help me heal the damage I have inflicted on others," turning again he darted towards the nearest kettle and dove into it in his squid form.

The kettle opened up to what looked like a wooded forest but Marlin knew better. "This dome one must be close to the surface," he muttered as he continued to run. He didn't even really bother to look where he was going, he didn't care as long as it was away from the others.

It wasn't until he had been running a good ten minutes that he noticed he was being followed. The faint sound of running footsteps having been mostly muffled by his own mindless rush through the trees finally reaching his ears.

He suddenly stopped, "Cal if that's you I- Ack!" Something crashed into his back sending him tumbling into the ground and landing face first into the dirt. Spitting leaves and mud out he angrily turned his head to find the cause of his fall.

"I, I'm sorry," the female Octoling squeaked as her luminous green eyes stared down at him. Even in the half light of the forest her eyes partially glowed, "I didn't expect you to stop so quickly."

"O-Octatia?!" he pushed her off him, "what...?"

"My people live near here ever since we had to get away from the city," she pointed off to their right, "the village is just over the next rise. If a patrol were to come through here they might have questioned you as to why you are here."

"I'll keep that in mind," he turned to go as soon as he had gotten back onto his feet.

"Hold up!" she grabbed his arm, causing him to sigh, "you expect me to just let you go?" a slightly annoyed look came onto her face to replace the one of fear she'd had a few seconds before.

"I suppose not. Not with you being the chief of your people and such."

Her scowl deepened, "I really wish people would stop bringing that up."

"But..."

"Of course I will do whatever it takes to protect my people but something like the leadership of entire race isn't something you dump onto the shoulders of a young girl!" she snapped.

He flinched, "Sorry I didn't mean-"

"Of course you didn't, you never do!" she cut him off again, "You have a nasty tendency to not think before you speak..." a playful smile crept onto her face, "...Nicky..."

His eyes immediately grew wide, "What?"

"Oh come on Octarnick you really didn't think I would recognize you? It may have been four years ago that you returned to your people but I would know my old boyfriend anywhere."

"Old boyfriend...?"

"Well...yes..." she blushed furiously at his question, "since I'm the only living heir it means that I'm expected also to produce an heir so that the line can continue. My mother as been pushing young male Octolings left and right on me ever since you left."

"Your mother doesn't know...uh...what I am, does she?" He weakly asked.

"No, and I never planned to tell her when we were dating," she answered but her blush was still there.

"Oh..." he said before something dawned on him seconds later, "wait a minute...you knew before?"

"Of course Nick..." lifting up her left hand she tugged at the half glove she was wearing with her other hand and revealed three distinct marks on her hand. Two on her palm while the third was in the back of her hand about halfway in distance between the other two. They looked like they were once very deep and probably had been painful when first inflicted on her but they had long since healed to become three scars that stood out against her pale skin, "...without me you might not have made out of the Octarian base alive."

"Oh, Tia..." he reached out to grab her hand. Running his fingers over it he could feel a difference in skin texture where the skin had been damaged and healed back. He looked up at her, "did I really hurt you like this?"

"You did...in more ways than this," she pulled her hand away from him, but she didn't bother to put the glove back on, "I know that you know my father was Octavio but when I first found out you were Agent 3 I was admittedly very bitter and I wanted to kill you actually..."

"You what?!"

"Let me finish!" she sharply cried out, causing him to instantly fall silent again, "those five years ago when you tried to escape I was on patrol. I heard shouting when only seconds later I saw you running around a corner right towards me," she looked at him warily, "do you even remember that?"

"It's pretty blurry Tia because I got hit..." he froze as he instinctively reached up to his old injury, "...it was you! You hit me upside the head causing me to get temporary amnesia!"

"Well you were the one who bit my hand Nicky," she pointed out to him, "I was simply returning the favor."

"Will. You. Stop. Calling. Me. That!" He said, putting emphasis on each word, "you know I hate being called 'Nicky' Tia!"

"Yes I do know," a smile crept onto her face, "it's still nice to see a little bit of the old you and that was the only way I could think of getting that to happen."

"But why would you want me mad?"

"Because it would hurt less thinking you hate me," she blurted out only to have her hands fly up to her mouth as her face turned partially maroon in color.

"What? What do you mean it would hurt less?"

She refused to look at him. She turned as if to leave but he grabbed her shoulders and pinned her up against one of the many trees before she could. She whimpered faintly as the sharp bark dug into her skin but otherwise she continued to remain silent.

"Tia what did you mean by it would hurt less?" he asked her in a more gentler tone, "please answer me..."

"Octarnick you're an Inkling, I'm an Octoling. Our two races have been fighting with each other for countless years and I very much doubt that will stop anytime soon. If we were to be together we could be ridiculed by both of our people and I'm sure you don't really care for little ol' me and..."

He placed a hand on her mouth to silence her. Immediately she glared at him for a second before he removed his hand to replace it with his lips.

A muffled squeak came out of her before she succumbed to the kiss, her fingers playfully touching his smaller tentacles at the back of his neck as the two continued to kiss. Slowly his hands trailed down to the small of her back as he pulled her closer to him until they were up against one another in a tight embrace.

After about a minute Octatia pulled away from Marlin causing him to look at her in slight disappointment, "What's wrong?"

"Why...why are you doing this to me?" she asked, a hint of sadness and pain in her voice.

"What do you mean?"

"There's no way you could love me Octarnick."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you wouldn't. We are completely different species."

He raised an eyebrow, "so?"

She hesitated briefly, "D-doesn't it bother you that I'm not an Inkling?"

He pulled her closer to him until they were almost nose to nose with each other as his orange eyes stared straight into her luminous green ones, "Tia, ever since I left I haven't had very many moments in the last four years in which I wasn't thinking about you."

"Really?" she asked in a barely audible whisper.

"Yes," he pulled away from her, "but I guess you have moved on with that Tyler Octoling, I perfectly under-"

"Wait..." she held up a hand to silence him, "...you think Tyler is my boyfriend?"

"He's not?"

"No..." a tiny smile formed on her face, "...he's my cousin..."

"What?"

"Octyler is my cousin on my mother's side of the family. She asked him to keep an eye on me."

"Why?"

"Probably so I don't fraternize with somebody who she considers unfit as my mate..." she slightly giggled at the thought.

"But don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Not anymore. I dumped the last one my mom forced me to go out with about two months ago...she hasn't tried to force another one on me yet..."

"Well then where is your bodyguard?" he glanced around as if he half expected to see the mostly silent Octoling lurking behind a tree or something.

"I ditched him when your team showed up. Smething was brought up and...I couldn't handle it, I ran off and have been avoiding everyone ever since by hiding out here."

"So...you've been out here all by yourself alone?"

"I was."

"Was?"

"Well...you're here now, so technically I'm not alone anymore..." she wrapped her arms around his neck as she gave him a pleading look, "...unless you're planning to ditch me here."

Instead of saying anything he placed another kiss on her lips, which accidentally caused her to fall backwards onto the ground, taking him with her. They rolled over each other several times before they stopped with Marlin on top of her, "there is no way I'm leaving you again Octatia."

Grabbing his shoulders she flipped their positions so that she was on top of him, "Nick...please just call me Tia. I don't want you to use formalities around me."

He tried to get up but she firmly kept him pinned so after several minutes her gave up, "Fine...but how about you call me Marlin instead of Nick or Octarnick? Marlin is my real name after all si-"

She silence him with a brief kiss, "It's a deal Marlin...as long as you act like a good squid."

Marlin's eyes briefly flashed bright orange before he could regain his composure, "What do you mean by that Tia?"

She gave him a wide, fanged grin. One of which he hadn't seen since she was his commanding officer in the Octarian army. It had originally sent shivers down his spine when he first met her but no longer did, "You'll just have see," she answered before she dove at him to receive another kiss and fall into his embrace.


	33. Forces of Matter

_Author's notes: Hello everybody, sorry for the long wait again but I'm once again back in school which gives me a lot less time to work on new chapters but I would like to tell you I've not been completely idle._

 _Some of you have probably discovered this but I actually have started work on a side Splatoon project called Legends of the Inklings that follows Marlin's story. This will be updated from time to time while I continue work on Secrets of the Inklings but once SOTI is complete the one will be regularly updated until complete._

 _Another thing I wanted to mention is I now have a Tumblr page of which I go by the same name there as I do here. It mostly consists of random concept drawings I've done and chapter updates for my stories as well as an opportunity for people to ask me questions there if you don't want to here through my ask box._

 _ **From Koolina:**_ _Can I try using your naming system in my FanFiction?_

 _ **Author:**_ _I have no problem with you doing that. You wouldn't be the first to use a concept from my story, (usually it's the Soulspot/purring one actually which I have no problem with people using either.) If anyone wants more details on my concepts be sure to ask me about it through PMs or Tumblr._

 _Anyways any questions or comments you have for me be sure to leave in the comments below._

 _And with that...enjoy._

 **Chapter 33: Forces of Matter**

Waking to screaming at five in the morning wasn't how Molly wanted to start the day but sadly seemed to be the case as the before mentioned screaming caused her to wrench her eyes suddenly open and inadvertently fall off the bed in the process.

"Carp!" she cried out as she rubbed where her back had hit the floor.

"You okay Molly?" Squil asked as he peeked over the edge of the bed. His tentacles shimmered faintly as his concern showed on them.

"I'm fine," she insisted as she got up, "but by the sounds of it Inka isn't..."

"Yeah..." Squil swallowed nervously as he looked in the direction of the screaming on the other side of the wall.

Molly frowned at him, "What's wrong?"

"Molly you have to realize I met Inka only a week after I met Ploosh and I knew them for almost two months before I met you and in all that time I had never seen Inka freak out even once...not even when we lost Marlin to the Octarians..."

What he was saying finally hit Molly and a feeling of worry passed through her, "We better go see what's wrong then...it really could be serious."

"Yeah," tossing the blankets off of himself he pulled himself from the bed and together the two of them slid the door of their room open which immediately caused the screaming to become louder.

They quickly saw Inka standing in the middle of the living room in near hysterics as she looked up towards the ceiling, "Inka, what i- oh..." Squil started to say before following her gaze he saw what it was she was looking at. Mildly puzzled Molly followed suit and nearly screamed herself.

Floating less then a foot from the ceiling was Ploosh. His back partially arced as if he was in pain but he seemed frozen in that position with his arms slightly held from his sides. At their current angle there was now way to tell if his eyes were open or not in his current state.

"Inka, it's okay. I'm sure it is," Molly cried out to her while fighting back the fear that was growing inside of herself.

"How can this be okay?!" Inka demanded as her voice rose several octaves higher then it already was.

"I'm sure Ty will have a logical answer for this," Squil tried to add in but Inka had started to wail loudly and thus his voice was barely audible anymore.

"What are you all doing up so early...?"

Turning to the source of the voice the three of them saw that both Vybe and Ty were currently standing at the top of the stairs but soon started to walk down them, "We're sorry to have waken you..." Molly apologized to them, "...but under the circumstances I'm not sure it could be help..." she then pointed up at where Ploosh was still floating near the ceiling.

"Well ain't that a predicament..." Ty started to say before he rubbed his eyes and looked up again. His eyes suddenly widened, "wait...oh my...um...it's happening, but I don't know what ability that is..."

"What you mean you don't know what ability that is?!" Inka angrily asked as she looked on the verge of lunging at him, "you said you knew all the abilities for green!"

"This one is a mutation..." was all he said as he continued to look up at Ploosh.

"A mutation?" Molly asked as she looked up at her cousin again, "could this be why he acted so ill when we first arrived here?"

"It is highly possible," Ty said before looking at Inka again, "Inka, Ploosh will be alright. Believe in him," he added just as Vybe suddenly slumped forward onto his shoulder unconscious.

"Oh dear...looks like Vybe might need some more sleep Ty," Molly said before suddenly yawning and feeling very tired and exhausted like she hadn't even slept the night before.

"Look who's talking?" Squil pointed out as the sudden exhaustion caused Molly to lean on him like Vybe was with Ty.

"Can you blame me? It is 5 in the morning," she told him in a half mumble. Over a week had gone past since they had first arrived in Ty's dimension and she still hadn't been able to get a good night's rest even once and over the last two days it seemed to have started to effect her even more.

"So...how long has he been like this?" Ty asked Inka.

"I'm not really sure Ty," she answered as she worked on calming herself down, "I woke up realizing he wasn't by my side on the couch and I found him floating up there. I think he might even be awake but he can't move."

"Since this is a new mutation, we may not know what happens when the process ends...my thinking is to put more cushioning under him just in case," after partially dragging Vybe into the kitchen he placed her in one of the stools and placing her head gently on the counter. Afterwards he started to make some coffee, "from what I can understand, at this rate...Inka, you will end up going through the process yourself. When, I have no idea."

"M-me?" she stammered out before swallowing nervously, "how can you be so sure I'll manafest one too?"

"It's only based on theory, but the way that the body translates the color gene and the way abilities are read, plus what that dimensional travel did to Squil and now Ploosh..." he paused to let the information sink in before continuing, "you know what this means, right?"

"I-I suppose so..." she said before she sighed, tension still clearly heard behind the sound.

After a few minutes the smell of coffee started to fill the room which caused Vybe to slightly wake up from her dozing.

"Ish it breakfast...?" she sleepily asked.

"No," Ty told her just as he happened to glance in Ploosh's direction which as soon as he did so his eyes suddenly grew wide again, "Quickly, get ready!" he cried out.

"What? Why?" Molly asked as she followed his gaze with her own.

"I swear I just saw him twitch..." Ty answered as he continued to watch.

Several seconds later the others soon saw what Ty had meant by Ploosh twitching. As the minutes passed the twitching soon became shudders similar to what Molly had seen with Squil. After several more shudders he finally gasped in pain and started to move again as his body slowly drifted back down to the floor. As soon as his feet touched the floor however, his body didn't seem strong enough to support itself so Inka had to keep him from collapsing onto the ground.

"Ploosh, you alright?" Ty asked him.

"I uh...think so," he answered somewhat weakly before Inka brought him into the kitchen and had him sit in one of the seats, "but I'm really sore...and my head kind of hurts..."

"Alright then. Just don't push yourself too much today," Ty stated as he grabbed the coffee pot and started to pour some.

It was then that Vybe finally woke up, "What happened while I was out? Is-oh...ah."

"Yeah...he's seems okay..." Molly quickly supplied to her, "but hopefully we will be able to figure out what his ability is."

Just as she said this she heard Ty sigh in frustration before shutting the fridge door.

"What's wrong Ty?" Inka asked him before Molly could have a chance to.

"Grocery run today. We are out of a lot of things," he answered.

"You need some help with that?" Squil asked, "I'm sure me and Molly could help."

"That would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Squil," Vybe replied as she went to get some coffee.

"Ploosh...do you think you can eat something?" Inka asked him as she turned her attention back to him.

"Yeah...I think I could," he answered, "I just wish this headache would go away...it makes it kinda hard to think straight..."

"Coffee?" Ty offered.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Well, if you say so...will everyone survive with just toast for this morning?"

"Sure," Vybe answered him.

"Probably you should start with something simple anyway Ploosh," Inka told him.

"Inka...please don't mother me...I don't need you to do that," he quickly responded.

"But..."

"Inka please!" he cried out before hitting the table in frustration which caused Inka to jump slightly in surprise, "I'm serious!"

"Um...why is there a glass stuck to the ceiling?" Vybe asked looking up, "It was on the table..."

Just as quickly as the tension had built it then dissipated into confusion, "What?!" Ploosh asked her as he looked up as well only to leap backwards as the glass suddenly fell back down to the table and shattered, "what on Terra...? How did that happen?"

"Wait a second..." grabbing another cup Ty quickly placed it on the table, "slam the table again."

"Uh...okay..." hesitantly Ploosh hit the table hard with his hand which caused the cup to shudder before it flopped over sideways onto the table, "no offense Ty but I don't think I get what your point of me doing that was."

"Because your ability is...new, in the sense that it's never before seen," he explained.

"Uh...okay...so what is it?"

"That's why I'm asking you to do some things. Considering you were just floating in the air a few minutes ago and that first glass was on the ceiling...I am trying to recreate those events...well, not you floating of course."

"What were you thinking of when you slammed your fist into the table?" Molly asked the green Inkling.

"Um...well with the fact that everyone has been acting like I have this strange disease or something I sorta got frustrated and I wanted to pick something up and..." he started to say before noticing that the others were all staring at him, "...what?"

"The glass Ploosh..." Molly finally dared to say after several seconds.

Looking down he nearly jumped out of his seat at the sight of the glass floating a few inches above the table before falling back down with a loud klunk, "Holy mackerel! Did I do that?"

"That is my best guess, Ploosh," Vybe told him.

"But what exactly is it?" Inka asked slightly worried.

"Telekinesis," Ty answered, "which was only a theory and movie special effects...until now."

"My cousin...has Telekinesis?" Molly said somewhat hesitantly.

"Hm...kinda odd considering Ploosh comes from a long line of green and lime green Inklings you would think he would he would actually get something normal to green," Squil added in as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Like I said, it's a mutation. A never before seen one," Ty commented.

"Well...I guess that's kinda cool..." Ploosh said as he stared at the glass intently which eventually led to it floating again, "hey look, no hands," he chuckled slightly before Inka hit him upside the head which caused him to lose concentration and caused to cup to end up back on the table, "oww!"

"Well at least your back to your old self," Inka sighed as Ploosh continued to rub his head.

"Well, sadly, that doesn't exactly help with the grocery issue...not to be rude." Ty said as he got up, "So...Molly, Squil, you coming?"

"Sure thing Ty," before getting up from her seat Molly turned to face Inka, "you going to keep an eye on him?"

"Of course, we don't want him to break something else."

"Don't you trust me?" he asked.

"Not completely," she admitted to him, causing him to blush in embarrassment.

"Alright then. Let us get dressed first," he then headed up the stairs with Vybe following behind him.

"We should probably get dressed as well," Squil said as he got up and headed back into the secret room. Molly followed him a second later.

* * *

"Well, the morning usually defines how the day goes," Ty was in the middle of saying as Molly and Squil walked back out of the secret room. Currently he was finishing up his coffee while Vybe was finishing strapping an ink tank with their eggs in it. Molly herself was wearing pink shirt and pale blue jeans while Squil was wearing black leather jacket and black jeans.

"Well I hope nothing too serious happens while we're gone," holding her goggles in her hand she slipped them into her bag, "how soon do you think Inka could manafest hers?"

"Not sure," he sighed, "This would be a good time to get anything else we may need."

"Right...lead the way Ty."

Heading out of the apartment and the complex itself the group was soon on the street and heading towards the main plaza.

"I don't know why, but the autumn air is just splendid today," Vybe replied as she took in a deep breath, "it smells so clean compared to the usual air we get around here."

"It almost reminds me of home..." Molly sighed.

"Don't worry...we'll get home eventually," Squil told her. As he did so he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"Promise?"

"Cross my hearts and hope I never get splatted," he told her before doing the now familiar gesture over his chest.

It was then that the four of them reached the main plaza. Just like the last time Molly and Squil were there few Inklings were seen around the plaza, "It's going to be great when the lobby opens back-" Ty started to say before something caught his eye by the station.

"Ty? What is i-" Molly started to say before she looked over where he was staring as well, "what on Terra?!"

Over by the station was two young Inklings that looked to be about 16 years old but other than that is was hard to see what they looked like. As they continued to watch the two Inkling slipped behind lobby building and out of sight, "What are they doing?" Ty started to ask has he moved towards the lobby.

"It looks like they might be trying to get in," Squil said.

"Then let's stop them," Ty responded as he moved more quickly with the others right behind them.

As they got closer to the building two voices were soon able to be heard, one a boy's voice while the other a girl's voice.

"Come on...just a little bit more..."

"Skits...I'm not so sure about this anymore..."

"Kit, I'm nearly done..." was the last thing the group heard before hearing an audible click just as they turned the corner to find the two teenagers.

Immediately the two of them turned around and looked wide eyed at Ty and the others. The boy having blue eyes and teal colored tentacles peaking out of a squidvader cap and a layered anchor long-sleeved shirt and red work boots while the girl was sky blue with dark teal eyes and had a squid Nordic hat, a Zekko hoodie and squid-stitched casuals, "Uh..." the boy started to say.

"Carp Skitty! I said this was a bad idea," the girl cried out in fear while the boy continued to stare at the group.

Finally getting his composure back the boy looked at the girl as he grinned before turning back to the group, "SURPRISE!" tossing a sprinkler at Ty and the others, who leaped back in surprise, he turned tail and dashed off, leaving a trail of teal behind him.

"What the...? Hey wait for meee!" shifting into her squid form while changing her color to teal the girl Inkling quickly followed him through the ink trail.

"Crap, After them!" Vybe cried out before changing her color to teal and jumping into the trail as well. She quickly disappears out of sight after the two Inklings.

"Oh dear...and that sprinkler was a fake..." Ty stated before turning teal, "We can't exactly let them escape now..."

"Come on Squil!" Molly said as she also changed her color to teal. Squil being only a second behind her in doing so.

They lost sight of Vybe after a few minutes and no matter what they did didn't seem to be getting them any closer to catching the two Inklings, "Geh...I can't seem to keep up..." Ty cried out before slowing down.

"But why were they trying to break in?" Molly tried to ask as her breathing started to turn into gasps for air.

"Probably to try to do a turf war..." Ty said as he shifted back into his humanoid form and sat down exhausted.

"Well at least they didn't get in," Squil stated as both he and Molly shifted back as well.

Too weak to stand anymore Molly flopped down onto the pavement as her breathing became more ragged and her lungs started to burn with pain as well as a pang of pain that started to form in her stomach as she sat there, "Yeah...that was...too close..."

Her heavy breathing immediately caught Squil's attention, "You okay Molly?"

"Yeah...just a little winded that's all..." she answered him.

"You didn't used to get this tired before..."

"I'm fine Squil...really I am," she quickly told him, the burning of her lungs had by this point faded but oddly the stomach pain hadn't yet and continued to cause her minor discomfort. She quickly ignored it as she got back to her feet.

"I don't know where Vybe has gone off to..." Ty said between his own panting, "not to mention that we are older than we used to be...I could have easily kept up if I was younger."

"I hope she's fine..." Squil said to him but continued to watch Molly warily.

They waited several more minutes before the sound of someone super jumping suddenly caught their attention, "Oh no...everyone hi-" Ty started to say, panicking, before Vybe came crashing down on him, causing both of them to end up on the ground.

"Oh my squid are you two okay?" Molly quickly asked.

"Uhh..." Ty groaned as Vybe slowly sat up while rubbing her head before she gasped in panic.

"Oh my cod, Ty, you alright honey?"

"Maybe..." he continued to groan as Vybe helped him back up.

"Not to be rude of anything Vybe but do you normally crash into whoever you're super jumping to?" Squil asked, mildly worried at how hard she had hit Ty.

"That or I miss them completely..." she sighed as she said it, "being a neon flying squid comes with that..."

"Hmm...sometimes I wonder what species I'm descended from..." Molly commented as she stared off at nothing in particular. Her thoughts getting slightly drifty before she regained focus.

"Japanese Flying Squid is what I believe you are. Either that or a reef squid. Haven't really tested that yet," Vybe answered her.

"I've never had trouble super jumping like you imply most Jumping Squids have so I'm not so sure and I know for a fact that Callie is a Reef Squid and my tentacles aren't as long as hers so I don't think I'm one either..." Molly replied just as she realized Ty wasn't paying attention to the conversation anymore. He seemed to be thinking about something but what she couldn't be sure.

"Japanese flying squids have no issues with that kind of thing. In fact, I'd say they are good all around," Vybe continued, "In fact, that's the most common species around. Not trying to degrade you or anything..."

Molly shrugged, "Eh, I don't mind but someday I might want to know for certain."

"Oh...goodness...I assume you lost them, Vybe?" Ty asked.

"Yeah...and I'm scared that they fell into the sewers..." she answered as she took in their surroundings for the first time, "but anyways, where are we?"

"Backstreets, probably..." Ty stated as he looked around as well.

"Well maybe we should get going," Squil said as he visibly shivered while looking in the direction they came from, "this place, I think, is actually creeping me out."

"I can't shake a similar feeling, Squil," Ty agreed as he stood up. As he got up his eyes grew wide, "Vybe..."

"Yes?" she answered him, puzzled at his sudden change of behavior.

"Where are the eggs?" he asked as fear tinged his voice.

"Oh, as soon as you started walking to the station I went in the Cafe to give them to Milly," Vybe told him, "I know we can trust her with that."

"At least you know someone you could trust with your eggs Vybe," Molly said sadly, "I'm not we could say the same..."

Frowning, Squil turned towards her puzzled, "What made you say that Molly?"

Realizing what she had said Molly quickly stammered out, "I-I don't know Squil...the thought just came to me..."

"Well, we don't have eggs yet Molly and even if we did I'm sure Ty and Vybe would be more than willing to help us out," he turned to face the other two, "...right Ty?"

They both nodded, "Of course, we would be more than willing to help you two," Ty answered.

"See? I told you so," Squil smiled encouragingly.

"Yeah...I suppose you're right," she felt another small twinge of pain through her stomach which caused her to wince inwardly before she leaned up against him.

"Let's get out of here. It's eerie here..." Ty replied as he walked back the way they had come.

"Ty..." Vybe started to say.

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

He looked over at her with an eyebrow raised, "Um...no? Not like spirits or something like that..."

"Then that white hand on your shoulder...it isn't real then, is it?"

He turned to look over at his shoulder but there wasn't anything there. Turning back to her he frowned, "That wasn't funny Vybe..."

"Perhaps she really did see something Ty," Molly suggested, "but then again if she had perhaps it is better if we hadn't seen it..." she shuddered at the thought of such.

Ty simply shrugs as the group becomes silent until they make it back out of the alley and to the main plaza. By that point the teal color had faded from their tentacles so they were back to their normal birth colors, "Finally some open air..." Vybe sighed with relief before remembering something, "ah, the eggs, I will be right back," heading into a café under a recording studio she returned several minutes later with the ink tank on her back.

"All of them accounted for?" Ty asked.

"Yep, let's roll!" Vybe answered him.

"So what do we need to pick up Ty?" Molly asked as they continued to move towards the store.

"Different varieties of fish and beef...gonna get some more cereal, eggs, vegetables...we will find more I'm sure..."

"Mmm...maybe some chicken...or shrimp..." even as she said it Molly's stomach started to grumble at the thought of food which combined with the already present pangs of pain in her stomach was an odd sensation. Before she knew it though her mouth had started to water.

Her reaction immediately grabbed Squil's attention, "Molly...seriously what is up with these cravings you keep having?" he asked her, getting concerned.

A hint of fear ran through Molly but she quickly hid it as she calmly shrugged at him, "It's not like being hungry is a bad thing Squil..." she stated to him. As she did so, however she couldn't help but notice Vybe examining her and Squil with what was at first confusion but that then quickly turned to a mixture of shock and fear. Catching sight of Vybe's expression Ty turned and asked her if she was okay. Whatever her response was and the brief conversation that followed afterwards, however, was too quiet for Molly to catch. But whatever it was about she doubted it was anything good.

"Well perhaps we better get moving," Squil said, pulling Molly closer to him as he did so, "the sooner we get done the sooner we can get back to Inka and Ploosh."

"True. And then I can make fried lobster for dinner," Ty responded as they walked up to an area full of produce stands and other goods.

"Ooooh, they are having the farmers market today!" rushing ahead Vybe stopped in front of a stand with fish.

"There certainly is a large variety of foods," Squil exclaimed as he glanced at different stands they passed.

Ty said nothing as he looked but about halfway through the market he suddenly stopped at one particular stand which appeared to have pieces of paper in containers for sale, "hmm..."

"What are those Ty?" Molly asked as she stared at them curiously.

"These are o-mikuji," looking up Molly was surprised to see a solid yellow colored female Inkling with brilliant silver eyes staring back at her, "the ones on the side are mainly guides. If you want one, it only requires a five coin sacrifice."

"Guides? In what way?"

"To translating them yourself. Either that or allow me to do it for you."

"Hmm...Squil, Molly, you want one?" Ty asked as he turned to face them.

"Sounds interesting so sure why not," Molly answered. Squil simply shrugged in response.

"Alright," he turned back to the yellow inkling, "three o-mikuji please," he then handed her the coins before she handed him, Molly and Squil each a tiny scroll, "you guys want to open yours first?"

"How about you go first Ty."

"Alright then," he unrolled his scroll, "ah, this one is pretty good."

"What does it say?" she asked him.

"Chū-Kichi negaigoto; which is a medium blessing."

"Hmm...interesting," Squil commented before undoing his to read it, "kichi, hōgaku..."

"Huh, that is also a good one, and yours Molly?" Ty asked her.

"Okay..." gently she undid the scroll and slowly translated as she read it, "chū-kichi, shu-" she froze, the last word still on her lips as she stared at it repeatedly to see if she had read it wrong.

She hadn't and what it implied scared her.

She quickly crumpled the scroll up before the other two could read it, "...Never mind...it's just like a fortune cookie...it won't necessarily happen..." she mumbled out to them in hopes they hadn't saw how scared she had gotten.

Ty looked over at Squil with a brief look of worry before turning back to Molly, "So...you can keep them on you as a charm or you can tie them to the metal fence over there," he then pointed over to a fence where dozens of the small scrolls were tied to the metal links.

"I don't mind keeping mine," Squil said before slipping his into a pocket in his jacket, "Molly?"

"Uh...yeah I'll keep mine..." she answered him. Not wanting to draw more attention to it she quickly stuck it in her bag on her back.

"Alright," waving kindly at the Inkling, who bowed in response, Ty then led them towards the grocery store.

Just before they walked in Vybe rushed up to them with a basket of food and a star hat on her head, "Hiya!" she cried out giddly.

"Vybe...what's with the hat?" Molly asked as she fought the urge to giggle a little.

"Isn't it cute?" Vybe asked as she struck a pose in front of them.

"Yes, it is Vybe. It's very cute," she smiled at the cyan Inkling happily.

"Yay! Now let's get anything else we may need."

"Alright Vybe," still smiling she followed the group into the store. It was then that the pain in her stomach had started to get worse. Gritting her fangs she tried to ignore it as much as possible.

"Sounds like a plan Ty...right Molly?"

"Huh?" shaking her head she turned to face Squil as the other two looked at her as well, "oh...yeah okay. I'm okay with that."

"Alright, Molly, let's go get snacks!" Vybe replied as she waved her hand at Molly.

"Sure thing Vybe," she answered her as she followed the cyan Inkling down an aisle and out of sight of the other two.

The two were silent for several minutes until Vybe broke it, "So...you doing alright?" she said it a lot more quietly then she normally would.

This instantly gave Molly pause before answering, "Uh...yeah..." she continued to look at the shelves with not much interest, "...why do you ask?"

"You seem...not yourself, per say," she answered as she grabbed a box of cookies from a shelf, "mainly because you exhausted quickly today and those sudden meat cravings..."

"I suppose I have, haven't I? Maybe the dimensional travel finally is effecting me as well."

"It's more natural than that dimensional change..." Vybe started to say. After pausing for a few seconds she continued, "...in fact, I would guess that your body is doing something that will become beautiful..."

Molly froze and quickly turned around to face Vybe, "Vybe...what are you talking about?"

Vybe looked at her for several seconds with a look of uncertainty before speaking again, albeit somewhat hesitantly, "Do you want me to say it straight up, or do you want more explanation?"

Fear started to grip Molly's heart but she tried to pushed it aside, "Um...explanation?"

"Your body is pulling nutrients from itself and from the food you eat. This is why you are getting cravings for meat, getting exhausted quickly, and are slightly more aggressive than normal..." she told her, "...essentially, you are beginning to make unfertilized eggs."

The world immediately felt like it had fallen out from under her as Molly quickly grabbed the edge of the shelf to keep herself from falling to the floor, "E-eggs? I have eggs?" another twinge of pain hit her stomach as if in confirmation to the question she had asked.

"Calm down..." Vybe said as she quickly came over to her and patted her shoulder in comfort, "It's a natural thing. To be honest I'm surprised you didn't know already...but yes, you do. They are unfertilized, which means that they are not actually able to be laid yet because they aren't holding a growing squishie yet."

"I was raised around humans which don't lay eggs...I know Inklings do but I've never really thought ask what the signs were..." her response was only half true since she really had been raised around humans. The question as to the signs was another thing entirely.

"Once your body is done making them, the only sign that you have them would be using the bathroom more often and a hard lump if you were to feel your stomach." Vybe quickly explained to her "I'm actually kind of excited for you."

"Really?"

"Yes I am, Molly. I will warn you that hormones may go wonk once the eggs form. I have to admit that's part of why me and Ty have eggs right now...but I believe that you are stronger than I am on that front."

"Am I?" she mumbled as she briefly went into a daze before snapping back out of it, "Vybe...were you scared when you found out you had eggs?"

"Not really...I had already done my research on them beforehand, so I kinda knew what to expect...but...it was kind of a surprise..."

"I wish I could say the same..."

"I believe you and Squil will be great together," Vybe insisted before her ear suddenly started to twitch as a concerned expression came onto her face, "not to interrupt the moment, but act normal for a few."

"What? Why?" Molly asked as she let go of the shelf and stood straight again. It was then that the sound of several voices came to her ears. They got steadily louder as the owners of the voices got closer to where they were.

"Oh my goodness, Ryuu, no," one of the voices, a girl's voice, suddenly cried out.

"Fiiiine..." one of the other voices, a boy's voice this time, groaned as they got closer before passing by their aisle. Once their voices had faded to nothing Vybe released a sigh of relief.

"I know I was the one freaking out a second ago but you look like you've seen a ghost Vybe. Who were those three?" Molly asked Vybe, slightly concerned by her reaction to the voices. Based off what Molly could hear they didn't sound much older than 14 years old.

"Those were my children..." she nearly whispered, "...from another future..."

Molly stared at her in disbelief for several seconds, "What?! They're your children? But how is that possible?"

"They have Ty's goggles..." Vybe explained, "...the exact same pair..."

"That still doesn't seem possible. I mean how did they even get here to this time if they're from the future?"

"Apparently another lab found out how to teleport using something called the Higgs Particle. I guess it works through time as well..."

"Hmm...it is interesting but to actually see your children when technically they haven't hatch yet..." Molly shuddered at the thought before she continued to walk down the aisle.

"It was a surprise to me too..." Vybe replied as she grabbed another package off the shelf.

The pair fell silent again and didn't speak until they were heading towards the front of the store with a small cart full of food and other items, "So, any other things you want before we go?"

"No, but I do have at least one more question Vybe..." Molly started to say but paused to hear Vybe's response before continuing.

"Sure. Ask away."

"Squil...I can't leave him in the dark about this but I'm not sure how I should tell him..."

"I would honestly ask if he wants children...because making eggs before marriage can be a bit awkward...but next ask him when. Depending on the response, that is how you should act once the eggs are formed," Vybe told her.

"I see...thank you Vybe. I'm not sure what I would have done without your advice," Molly sighed with only minor relief as she stared down at her stomach with worry.

"You seem to not have one problem that Ty has; asking for help."

"Really? That's interesting..."

"He is somewhat stubborn in that aspect..." Vybe answered just before they were in earshot of the two boys who were next to the registers.

"Hmm..." Molly faintly murmured before turning to look up at Squil as they came towards him and Ty, "did you guys get everything?"

"Yep, we even got more shrimp and trout than usual!" Ty quickly responded before Squil could.

"Oh?" Molly asked puzzled.

"Well you do like shrimp Molly..." Squil explained.

"Yes...yes I do," Molly half sighed in embarrassment as her face turned faintly red.

"If you three want to wait up front, that would be lovely," Ty said as he started to place stuff on the convertor belt.

"Sure no problem," Squil nodded, "Molly?"

"Uh yes, I'm coming," she answered him before following him.

As Vybe followed them she stopped in front of the stand from before. Pausing for a second longer she bought one and unrolled it. As she read it however she started to frown and without another word walked over to the fence and tied it to one of the wires before walking back over to the Molly and Squil, "Welp, that was weird..."

"What did you get Vybe?" Molly asked, mildly concerned at her reaction to the scroll.

"shō-kyō...and then nothing else...Tying it to that fence allowed me to leave that curse with it."

"Huh...that's weird."

"I know...I want to ask Ty about it next time I can."

"Yeah, you probably should," Squil added.

"Oh, speaking of which, we did get quite the load of food...I'm going to call a friend of ours," Vybe said as she pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hello? Rex you dimwit, it's me, Vybe...yeah...I need you and, if you want, Coral...I have two carts worth of food that I need help delivering..." there was a brief puase before she continued, "yeah, and don't get lost this time...see you in a bit," she said before hanging up.

"Rex and Coral?" Molly asked, curious, "are they a bit like Ploosh and Inka?"

"Yeah. They help me and Ty out in the lab when we have a big project. Usually they are a two-inkling team. In fact, they also have abilities as well."

"Huh...I wonder if it's coincidence that you have two friends like me and Squil do? I mean sure Ploosh is my cousin but still..." the very fact that Ty and Vybe had two friends like she and Squil did seemed far too coincidental in Molly's opinion to be the case but she didn't dare say it out loud.

"What abilities do they have?" Squil asked Vybe as Molly continued to think about the new piece of knowledge she had received.

"Rex has Electromagnetism, Coral has Siren."

Molly immediately snapped out of her thoughts after hearing this, "Hmm...oddly enough knowing what Electromagnetism is it sounds kinda like Ploosh's Telekinesis and he comes from a long line of Lime Green. Could that have something to do with his mutation?"

"Yes. Usually, a mutation is a deviation of a similar color's ability. Electromagnetism is stronger, I would assume, but it only works on magnetic metals and other magnetic elements."

"Ploosh's covers probably any kind of material, or at least that's what it appears to be, instead of just magnetic materials."

"Exactly, though I haven't seen him try to lift anything heavier than a glass...yet..." she leaned up against the wall of the store.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see than," Squil remarked as he looked around, "that aside though how long until those two show up?"

"It shouldn't be too much longer...unless Rex managed to get lost somehow," Vybe sighed as she said so.

"I'm guessing he does that a lot?"

"I'm guessing he does that a lot."

"Yeah, he does...and it gets annoying..." she blew a fly away as if for emphasis at her frustration.

"Oh...well I'm sure Inka would seriously chew him out if she was in your shoes," Squil lightly chuckled at the thought.

"Yeah, she would," Vybe responded as she started to laugh a little as well.

Several minutes later a truck with a canopy on it drove up towards them from the street. Coming to a stop a lime green Inkling with normal tips and a pink Inkling with white tips both stepped out of the car, the pair looked about 16 years old in age.

"You see, hon?" the pink one started to say, "...we are actually early since I drove."

"Yeah? But you still took your sweet time..." the lime green Inkling grumbled before he caught sight of Molly and Squil, with Coral following suit, "Who are you two?"

"You must be Rex and Coral," Molly said smiling at the two teenagers, "I'm Mollinda Colorian but most just call me Molly and this is my fiancé Squil Aquatica."

"Nice to meet you two!" Coral cried out happily before noticing that Rex wasn't paying attention anymore. She quickly hit him upside the head.

"Wha- oh. Um... Nice to meet you two," he responded as he slowly rubbed the back of his head.

Squil snorted which caused Molly to stomped hard on his foot, "Oww...uh yeah, same to you..." he groaned.

"So where do you peeps come from?" Rex asked.

"Pretty far," Molly explained as she started to tell the prepared story they had if anyone asked them that question, "I'm Ty's cousin but because of how far away we live this is the first time we've actually been able to meet together."

"Hey wait a minute...who are you calling a peep?" Squil asked, from which Molly could hear a faint hint of a growl behind it as he glared at the lime green Inkling.

"It's what I call everyone. Short for people," he said, not catching onto Squil's change in mood.

"It does get annoying hon..." Coral pointed out.

"Funny...where I come from that's a way to flirt with a girl," Squil's growling became more prominent as the tips of his tentacles suddenly became pale and he partially flashed his fangs at Rex in warning.

"Squil...don't," she immediately stood in front of him to get Rex out of his sight before whispering, "you've taken more than enough Inklings with your ability for this trip."

"Sorry to insult ya dude, didn't mean it," Rex quickly replied as he held his hands up in defense. He was taller than most male Inklings Molly had seen at his age but Squil still clearly towered over him by several inches.

Coral suddenly sighed and like a light switch being flipped the mood of the two boys changed, "I uh...sorry dude...I guess I shouldn't have made that assumption..." Squil replied like a young Inkling being scolded as the normal color of his tentacles returned.

"Coral, please contain yourself?" Vybe told the pink Inkling.

"I'll try," she answered with a shrug as Ty showed up with the carts.

"Wolly Mackerel that took longer than intended," remarked as he looked up and saw Rex and Coral, "Ah, how have you been doing?"

"Just fine, just Rex inadvertantly trying to get himself killed..." she then nudged him, "...as usual."

"Hey!"

"Well it doesn't help that Squil is being a bit over-protective," Molly groaned in response.

"We may not be married yet Molly but you're are still my mate and I'll protect you and when the time comes our family by any means necessary."

Without really thinking it Molly reached her hand up to her stomach and placed it gently on it for a few seconds before quickly putting it back down to her side as she blushed faintly, "Yes of course Squil...I know you will."

Rex a brief puzzled look before looking at the carts, "Ty, how sensitive is some of this stuff in the carts?"

"Some of it is really sensitive. I will grab those," he quickly grabbed them before giving Rex a thumbs-up. Seconds later the carts lifted up into the air and started to dump their contents into the back of the truck.

"Hmm...fascinating..." was all Molly said as he then lowered the carts before sitting down on the pavement.

"Why are you sitting?" Coral asked him.

"Because I nearly exhausted myself trying to keep everything as gentle as possible..." he answered as he panted slightly.

"So...you must get pretty exhausted from the concentration huh?" Molly asked the lime green Inkling.

"That amount, yes. ripping that blast door apart was even worse though..." he answered with a chuckle.

"Blast...door?" Squil hesitantly asked.

"It was a while ago. quite a few months, in fact," Ty answered as he put stuff into the back of the truck, "anyways, Coral, can you take this to our apartment? It would be much appreciated."

"Sure thing. See you there," dragging Rex with her they got into the truck and drove off.

"Hmm...they really do seem a bit like Inka and Ploosh, don't they Squil?"

"Yeah a suppose a little," he responded as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah... They actually do seem like the same..." Ty agreed as they all started to head back to the apartment.

"Let's hope nothing bad happened with Inka and Ploosh while we were gone. I'd hate to find out that something did," Molly said.

"Yeah, don't want something bad happening anyways," he sighed, "I'm going to need a nap once we get back."

"We probably should hurry then," Molly said as she started to move more quickly.

"Are you sure you don't want to slow down Molly?" Squil asked worryingly.

"I'm fine Squil, I'm not even exhausted in the slightest," she told him as she kept moving. Another twinge went through her stomach but she ignored it.

"She's gonna exhaust herself faster if she keeps that pace up," Vybe said before sighing.

"I know...that's what worries me the most currently," Squil told her as he caught up to Molly's pace.

"Hey, wait up!" Ty cried out as he picked up the pace as well.

"Can this day calm down for once?" Vybe groaned.

"Probably not," Squil called back to her as he continued to keep pace with a very determined Molly.


	34. A New Sense of Direction

_Author's notes: Hey everybody I'm baaack!_

 _Had to take some time for school but now I should update on a more regular basis...hopefully...only time will tell I guess._

 _Anyways enjoy!_

 **Chapter 34: New Sense of Direction**

The walk back to the apartment didn't take them long but as they walked up they could see Rex and Coral's truck was sitting in front of the apartment complex and was empty of the groceries from before.

"Oh, how nice! They unloaded for us!" Vybe exclaimed.

"Do you think they're still here?" looking around Molly didn't see any signs of the two which only made her even more anxious.

"Yeah. That is Coral's truck," Ty stated as he walked up to the complex.

"Well I hate to say this but I hope my cousin for once doesn't act like himself...especially since he has now Telekinesis."

"True..."

"Well let's just get this over with," Squil said as he let out a shaky breath. It didn't take much for Molly to tell that he was also nervous about the whole situation.

Another twinge of pain immediately however reminded Molly of another situation that she and Squil would have to discuss later. Her own personal decision on whether to have the eggs or not still hadn't been decided yet and even if she did want to have the eggs she was still worried what Squil would say about it. The gut wrenching feeling she had about it was almost as bad as the actual pain itself as she continued to think about it.

No one said anything as they walked through the lobby and into the elevator but once they had started to move up Ty faintly started to hum.

Molly turned to him, "Nervous?"

"Somewhat. I just hope that Coral can calm things down in case they did get out of hand..." he answered without looking at her. His knuckles were turning paler than they normally would be as he repeatedly clenched his fists.

With a loud ding the elevator doors flew open and they filed out before walking the last few feet to the door, "It sounds quiet in there," Molly mentioned as she tilted her ear towards the door in hopes of hearing something from the other side.

"Yeah...which is surprising," Ty added just before he opened the door.

None of them expected quite what they found.

Laying on the couch was Rex as Coral was gently rubbing one of his tentacles in his ponytail as Ploosh and Inka watched. Rex was purring loudly as he started to drift into a half-sleeping daze.

"Wow...same spot as yours Ploosh," Inka grinned at Ploosh as she said it.

He rolled his eyes in response before grumbling something about Vybe saying something to them last week.

"Rex just instantly becomes like a cat when I do it," Coral stated as Rex's purring got louder.

Inka grinned even wider before releasing a snort of laughter, "Same here with this dude," she quickly pointed at Ploosh for emphasis.

"I do not!"

"Let's see it then," a playful grin had formed on Coral's face as well as the two girls looked over at the green Inkling.

"Wait...what?!" he took a step back as Inka took a step towards him, "oh no you don't...not again!" he dived past her only to run right into Molly and cause them both to crash onto the floor.

His eyes got wide as he stared at her, "...Molly?! Uh, hi...back so soon?"

"Ploosh...get off!" a deep growl rose up from her throat as she said it, she partially bared her fangs as she did so.

"Okay, okay..." he got off her as quickly as possible, "yikes, when did you get moody..." he asked warily.

Molly blushed at his reaction as well as her own. Vybe had been right about her getting more aggressive as the eggs continued to form. She briefly hoped as she sat up it wouldn't get worse once the eggs were done forming.

"That is why you don't run away from women," Ty commented with a sigh.

"Hey you guys, how did the shopping go?" Inka asked the group.

"It went great, if I say so myself," Vybe answered as she help Molly up from the floor, "got a whole lot of stuff."

"Yeah, they know. They did help bring stuff up," Coral stated as she started to play with Rex's tentacles again.

"And then we started talking about soulspots afterwards...still not sure how we made that jump..." Ploosh admitted.

"Because, obviously, we are parallels to a degree, and that means so many things," the sound of Rex snoring soon announced to the rest of the group that Coral had made him pass out as his limp body sprawled farther onto the couch.

"So you had it explained to you about us huh?" Molly asked the pink Inkling.

"Yeah, it was mostly Inka," Coral explained. As she did so Molly couldn't help but notice her signaling to Inka while pointing at Ploosh.

"Yeah sorry, they seem so much like us that it didn't feel right to leave them in the dark," Inka added in as she subtly slipped behind Ploosh. By that point Inka's intentions had become clear to Molly as she started to reach up to her boyfriend's tentacles.

"Yeah, but I guess we should've checked in with you two first bef-" a shudder ran down Ploosh's back before a deep throated purr escaped his mouth as he slightly leaned backwards into Inka who continued to rub his tentacles.

Vybe giggled a little at the pair before answering, "It's fine, really."

"Well we didn't want to confuse you with the whole dimensional sibling thing, so that's why we said I was Ty's cousin," Molly explained.

"Ah, I understand," as she continued to rub Rex's tentacles she turned to look at Inka, "say, Inka, why not drag Ploosh over to the other couch so that he can sleep?"

"Alright," even with the fact that Ploosh's tentacles were longer than a male's would be normally she still had to reach up a bit to get to them. Guiding him over to the couch she had him sit down next to Rex. He only sat up for about a minute before he started to end up like Rex was, "with his ability manafesting this morning he probably could use the rest."

"I bet."

"How are you feeling though Inka?" Squil asked the purple Inkling.

"I feel fine Squil," she frown at him as she finally lulled Ploosh to sleep after several minutes, "why do you ask?"

"Just checking in," turning to look at Vybe Molly quickly noticed the cyan Inkling was also trying to get in a sneak attack. Ty unfortunately was completely oblivious to it as he stared at his phone with growing concern.

"Well I'd like to point out that I think you are over exaggerating the situation. I haven't shown any signs of an ability trying to manafest," Inka's sharp response drew Molly's attention back to what was going on in front of her.

"We weren't trying to Inka..." Squil started to say.

"Really? Because that's what it has looked like to me," she glared at him, causing him to take a step back in surprise.

"In other news, I just received a text from Marie," Ty finally said as he looked up from his phone, breaking the growing tension in the room. Vybe had meanwhile stopped her advances on him to listen as well, "seems two stages have been cleared of those infected Octarian troops...somehow. They are going to try to get security cam footage."

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Molly asked him.

"Yeah, it is," he answered as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, "Hopefully, we can find the cau-"

"Gotcha!" Vybe's shouted, drowning out whatever Ty had been trying to say as she tackled him and pinned him down on the ground. As soon as he was down she then started to scratch his back which slowly cause his yelling to lower in volume and become slurred until it eventually shifted into a deep growling purr as he finally succumb to the effects of his soulspot getting scratched.

"What is with all the girls around here lately?" Squil wondered nervously. Turning to Molly he eyed her with concern, "are you gonna come after me next?"

"Relax Squil...I'm honestly a bit tired myself so you're safe," she had honestly started to feel even more tired than before as they had returned back to the apartment and now it really seemed to be taking its toll on her. Now that she knew what was going on inside of her the symptoms almost seemed obvious to her.

Vybe giggled a bit as she continued to rub Ty's back until something suddenly caught her eye, "Inka?"

Turning to follow her gaze Molly quickly saw what was going on. Inka's movements had become somewhat sluggish as she continued to rub Ploosh tentacles like she might try to pass out.

"I-I'm fine...really Vybe," she quickly insisted as she tried to fight whatever it was that was making it difficult to move but it only to seem to make her even slower.

Having finally stopped purring Ty looked up at Inka and his eyes immediately grew wide, "It's beginning..."

"I'm fine Ty, re-" her eyes suddenly rolled up into her head as she fell unto the floor unconscious.

"Oh gosh!" Vybe yelped as she got off of Ty and tried to go help Inka only to end up unable to get any closer after getting about a few feet away from her, "what the literal squid?!"

Walking over as well Molly placed her hand forward in front of Vybe only to feel something solid almost propel her hand back, "Ty what's happening to her?"

"That ability...Heightened Senses," he climbed back onto his feet before he continued with concern, "blacking out isn't common when the process begins..."

"Have either mine or Ploosh's follow the normal symptoms I'd like to ask?" Squil pointed out to him.

"Both of you were asleep, meaning you felt nothing. That is normally when abilities manifest," Vybe quickly reminded him.

"Well I hope she hasn't been depriving herself sleep to prevent it..." staring down at her Molly couldn't help but feel totally helpless just like she had when Squil's ability first manifested.

"That usually isn't the case. If I can be sure, it seems that there is a set list of times for each ability to manifest," Ty explained "blacking out during the process isn't caused by lack of sleep, but rather by intensity."

Molly frowned at him, becoming even more concerned, "Meaning?"

"Intensity meaning how fast and powerful the process is..."

She bit her lip but continued to press him farther, "I figured that but what could that mean for her Ty?"

"The possibility that her ability would be slightly more powerful..."

"You think so?"

"Yes..."

"Well let's hope she pulls through okay," pulling Molly close Squil gently rubbed her back as he said it.

"Yeah," Ty agreed.

"What's going on?" looking back over to the couch Molly and the others saw that Ploosh had woken back up with Rex slowly coming to as well with a yawn since Coral had stopped rubbing his tentacles to look at Inka, "What happened to her? Why is she passed out on the floor?"

"Her ability started manifesting," Vybe answered.

"And it's probably going to be slightly stronger than normal," Coral added.

"Oh, that's what I missed?" Rex asked before Coral hit him in the head with a glare.

"Is she going to be fine?" Ploosh asked them, he may have been trying to hide it but Molly could still sense the fear in his voice as he spoke.

"I'm sure she will be Ploosh," Molly told him as she walked over to him to sit next to him in order to look him directly in the eye, "but all we can do now is wait."

He nodded in understanding as Ty headed into the kitchen to start making some food as Vybe continued to watch Inka and Coral started to play with Rex's tentacles again.

While waiting Molly couldn't help but notice that the pain she had been feeling was starting to lighten up. This only brought minor relief as something new drew her attention from the pain. After trying to ignore it for several minutes with a groan she got up from the couch and headed for the bathroom to go pee.

Coming back several minutes later she fought the urge to moan as she flopped back onto the couch, "ugh..."

"You okay?" Squil asked with a look of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she quickly replied in hopes he wouldn't question her farther. He didn't, but it didn't stop him from watching her very intently for a bit which only made her more self-conscious. Mentally she hoped she wouldn't have to many more spontaneous rushes to the bathroom once the eggs had formed if they hadn't already...

Looking down at her stomach she didn't notice it looking any different and with a bit subtle prodding she felt nothing different which almost caused her to sigh in relief until she remembered Squil was watching her like a sea hawk.

"The process is already nearing it's finishing point..." Vybe said, drawing Molly and the others attention again.

"Oh good," Ploosh said with a sigh of relief behind it.

"Certainly was shorter than yours, Ploosh," Vybe added.

"Yeah...it would appear so..." he responded but refused to take his eyes off of Inka as she started to show signs of waking up.

"And the Ability is nearing it's fini-" Vybe started to say until Inka suddenly spasmed.

"Did I do that too?" Ploosh asked worryingly.

"In a lesser degree, yes," she nodded.

After several more minutes of watching Inka shudder she suddenly sat up with a cry of pain before gasping in exhaustion. In the first few seconds of Inka's eyes being open however Molly couldn't help but notice them shimmering bright purple before fading back to their normal color. Whether the others notice it as well she wasn't sure.

"And it's done. I think we should wait on testing until after you have rested," Vybe said, standing up, "adrenaline can be dangerous."

"Yeah...okay...I have no problem with that..." Inka told her once she had stopped breathing hard.

"Yo Ty! How is lunch coming?"

"It's coming, don't worry," he answered from the kitchen as Vybe helped Inka up from the floor.

"Thank you Vybe. Now do I dare ask how long was I out?"

"I'd say only half as long as Ploosh was."

Inka frowned as she stared at Vybe, "Really? I thought the process took a bit?"

"When you black out, it takes shorter than average."

"Hm...why do I have a sinking feeling that not just that happens?"

"It doesn't usually happen at all. In fact, you are one of the few who ever did," Ty answered as he came back from the kitchen.

"Maybe...but there's something you're not telling me...isn't there?" she continued to stare at him for several seconds.

"Your ability is also more powerful than another inkling with your ability," Vybe told her, breaking the tension that had started to form in the room.

Inka immediately sighed in response, "Why am I not surprised by that? I guess I should've figured I couldn't come out of the dimensional travel ordeal unscathed..."

"None of us are..." Ty said, "this gut feeling...it's getting stronger each day we stall..."

"Perhaps we can help you in this fight..." standing up from her seat Molly tried to keep a calm expression as internally she was quivering, "...if you want us to."

"Yes. Please do," Ty answered, relief plain in his voice as he said it.

"We would love to help you out," Squil added in as he stood up as well.

"Thanks, you two, we begin the journey to Octo-Valley in a few days."

"We'll also help in your cause Ty," Ploosh placed his hands on Inka's shoulders who was remained sitting as he stood up, "my cousin and soon to be cousin in law and us two have been a team for many years and that's not gonna stop now."

"We will help as well, Ty," Coral added as well as she struggled to get Rex awake. Eventually she resorted to hitting him in the head again to wake him.

"You guys..." Ty said. He smiled, "It's a deal then!"

"Alright now no backing out of this guys," Ploosh exclaimed loudly, "death may stare us in the face but we'll still charge forward!"

"D-death?" several thoughts ran through Molly's head but one in particular caused her to reach up for her belly as a shiver ran throughout her body while a haunted look crossed over her face.

It didn't take Squil long to notice her distressed state, "Are you alright Molly?"

"I'll tell you later..." she lowered her hand back to her side, "...not now."

"Even when he stares you in the face, call him Santa," Ty suddenly responded in a sarcastic manner.

"Huh?" Coral stared at him puzzled.

"Inside joke," Vybe told her.

"I feel like there's quite a few things about you four that we might learn in the next few weeks...be it good or bad," Ploosh grinned as he said it.

"Let's make sure we can rely on each other when the time comes," Vybe stated as she smiled a little as well.

"Of course if you really think about it, we're all kinda like one big awkward family," Inka pointed out with a blush, "which isn't a bad thing..."

"Yeah, we kinda are in that way," slipping back into the kitchen for a minute Ty returned with a platter of sandwiches.

"Ooh food! Never thought I'd say this but I'm famished," she refused to take her eyes off the platter as he set it down.

"yeah, I bet you are," Vybe grinned.

"What?"

"Coral, tell her about when you got your ability," Vybe said as she turned to the pink Inkling.

Coral chuckled a little before answering, "Heh, once I got Siren, I was super hungry for two days. It was weird."

"Oh yeah...that makes sense," with a blush Inka grabbed a sandwich.

"Let's eat. We have a long week ahead," Ty exclaimed as he grabbed food for himself.

"It certainly sounds like it," Molly said as she grabbed a sandwich as well. She didn't feel that hungry so she only took a single bite before putting the sandwich down on her plate.

It didn't take long for someone to notice her lack of appetite, "You're not still having those cravings are you Molly?" Inka asked her after having watched her stare at the sandwich for several minutes, "I know you had some..."

"No actually I don't have them anymore..." she admitted as she placed her hand on top of her stomach before she realized she had done it again out of a now growing habit.

As she did so she felt something she had not felt there before. She could feel a very distinct bump that was about the size of a mango in the center of her stomach that felt firm. Pressing on it slightly caused her to wince as it faintly sent pain partially to her back.

"Molly? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...really...it's just a little bit of stomach pain that's all..." Molly quickly insisted as she put her hand back on the table. Looking across the table she could see both Vybe and Coral staring at her.

"Vybe, don't you have stuff for stomach pains?" Rex started to ask before Coral hit him in the back of his head, causing him to faceplant into his sandwich.

"Clearly you know nothing," the pink Inkling told him before turning back to Molly she winked at her with a smile.

How Coral figured out so quickly that she had eggs Molly wasn't sure but that didn't stop her from smiling gratefully back at her, "I'm sure it will be gone by tomorrow, I'm sure it's nothing."

"Alright, if you say so," Vybe answered, "Just let me know if you need anything."

"I will...thank you Vybe."

The sound of buzzing drew everyone's attention back to Ty as he pulled his phone out, "Got the footage. We will watch it later."

"Footage? Of what exactly?" Inka asked as she ate.

"The two stages that were cleared of Octarian troops."

"Oh that's good," Molly sighed.

"Yeah, you bet it is...prices will start to lower now that those two are open."

"Well hopefully we can take them down everywhere else," Ploosh commented.

"Yeah," having finished his sandwich Ty stood up.

"I agree," Molly stood up as well, her sandwich only partially touched but she still wasn't really hungry. Ignoring it she went over to watch as Ty plugged in his phone into the TV in the living room and pressed a few buttons on his phone before an image appeared on the screen.

The video showed Saltspray rig as well as dozens of Octarians wandering around for at least a solid minute without anything really changing. After a bit though the video suddenly shows ink flying towards some of the Octarians before two Inklings come into view and take out the Octarians after several more minutes.

Near the end the two Inklings run past the camera and as their faces came into view Vybe gasped, "It's them?!"

"Them...who?" Ploosh asked confused.

"There were these two kids trying to break into the tower today, we chased them off, but they must have come back once we left!" Vybe answered.

"But why? They could get themselves killed," Inka didn't dare look away from the screen.

"The boy with the Squidvader Cap..." Ty said, a tone of seriousness in his voice, "He and the girl managed to lose Vybe today. He must be very skilled."

"Wow...that's pretty impressive for a couple of 16 year olds," Ploosh said as he continued to watch as well.

Immediately Coral whipped her head in his direction before she glared at him, "You looking to get smacked?"

"Wha...?" he took a step away from her only to have her start to come after him, "Oh um...no I'm not saying you're not capable Coral it's just...Inka help!"

"You walked into that mess Ploosh, now you'll need to get yourself out of it," she flatly answered him as she remained in her seat.

"Inka, you will need to help him," Rex said, having now become fully awake, "they don't call Coral 'The Siren' for nothing."

"Nah...I want to see what she'll do to him..." watching her boyfriend squirm under the Coral's gaze caused her to smirk, "he really did walk into that one."

Coral's expression turned into one of mischief as she snickered under her breath before she cleared her throat, "Oh Ploosh, you walk into things too much..." she told him but her voice had changed. It now sounded very much like Inka's voice but there seemed to be something else behind the tone. Something that immediately caused Ploosh to focus completely on her.

"Wait, why are there two Inkas?" Rex asked puzzled.

"Whoa..." staring wide-eyed at the pink Inkling Inka sat up straighter in her seat, "Coral that's pretty good imitation of me..."

She turned to face her, "Why thanks," she told her in an almost perfect imitation of Ploosh's voice before turning her attention back to Ploosh as well as speaking in Inka's voice, "Now, Ploosh, come over here..." she grabbed his hand and started to tug him across the room.

"Yes Inka...I'm coming," his green gaze had suddenly become unfocused as he allowed himself to be dragged. Acting as if he was under some form of spell.

"Inka, now!" Rex insisted as he stared worryingly at what was happening.

"Ploooosh," Coral crooned.

"What? Why? It's not like she's gonna do anything that bad to him..." her smile finally disappeared though as she watched his expression, "is she?"

"Yes Inka?" Ploosh continued to stare straight into Coral's eyes, "what is it you want?"

"When Coral get's too into it, there is no telling what she will do," Rex explained, causing Inka to stand up in worry as she tried to decide whether to go get Ploosh from Coral or not.

Before she could do anything Coral finally stopped him in the center of the room, "Ploosh, stand right there for a few minutes," she told him before turning to cast her gaze onto Inka, "Inkaaa," she had already swapped to Ploosh's voice as she walked over to Inka and started to tug her away from where she had been sitting.

"Ploosh?" her eyes lost focus just as quickly as Ploosh's eyes had as she allowed herself to pulled along, "what is it?"

Molly made a move to get up only to have Squil grab her hand and pull her back. Turning to face him she saw him shake his head at her, "Don't Molly. She's using her ability on them both and probably wouldn't take her much effort to ensnare you as well," he whispered.

With a worried expression she nodded in understanding as she turned her attention back to the three.

"Come over here for a few moments," Coral said as she placed Inka in front of Ploosh, "look at me..."

"Yes?" Inka hesitated as she stood there but continued to watch Coral as she slipped behind Ploosh, "what is it you want Ploosh?"

"Kiss me," she told them both in both Inka and Ploosh's voice.

Reaching towards each other they immediately did so as they wrapped their arms around each other tightly. They continued to do so for several minutes and only paused to grab air for a second before madly kissing some more.

"C-Coral?" Vybe finally said after a bit.

"Yes?" she answered in her own voice as a smile formed on her face.

"Wh-what the squid?"

"Oh..." her smile disappeared, "I guess I got too into it."

It was then that Ploosh and Inka snapped out of the spell Coral had trapped them in. Pulling away from each other they stared at each other wide eyed for a few seconds, "Inka?"

"Ploosh?" she squeaked.

"What the squid just happened?"

"I...I don't know..."

"My bad!" Coral quickly apologized, "got too into it!"

"That's an understatement," Rex commented.

"Did we just kiss...?" Inka hesitantly asked.

"Yeah I think so...but I think we may have gone a little overboard..."

"Just a little?" Vybe asked them both.

Turning bright red they both slowly went back to their seats. Sitting down Inka sighed, "I suppose I partially should have expected that when Rex said 'the Siren'. I just didn't think I would fall for something like that so easily."

"No one expects the Siren Inquisition!" Coral cried out with a giggle.

"I was worried that I or someone else was going to have to get involved if you went to far Coral," Molly said as she shuddered a little at how easily Inka and Ploosh had been ensnared by Coral's ability.

"That exhausted me though...I think it was worth my exhaustion," reaching for a sandwich she started to scarf it down.

"I'm sure it did," eyeing her warily Squil pulled Molly closer to himself.

"Her speech patterns decrease in quality when she's exhausted," Rex added.

"What wah Kay person...Agh!" with a growl of frustration Coral went back to eating her sandwich.

"Like that?" Squil raised an eyebrow.

"That and, in worse cases, becoming somewhat...mental," he hesitated before continuing, "like stupid if you want to call it that instead."

"Rexth, beh cuieth," stumbling over the words again she grumbled loudly as she ate some more.

"Oh boy..."

"So...that was the most we have seen her use it...and it's scary," Vybe said to the rest of the group.

"Really? The first time?" Inka asked sadly.

"And we were her first victims..." Ploosh didn't look up as he said it.

"It was used mostly to calm us down when things got heated," Ty explained.

"She does want to be a psychiatrist," Vybe added in.

"Hm...maybe because I have heightened senses that's why I want to study history and more specifically major ancient wars," Inka mused softly.

"That may be it...question is how rested you feel right now?"

"Me? I'm fine...why do you ask?"

"This is the only test we are going to do for today," standing up Vybe walked over to Inka who stood up as well. Ty behind her was looking up at his wife with concern, "you ready?"

"I uh...think so," she swallowed a little in nervousness as a faint shimmer briefly came into her eyes.

Without another word Vybe threw a punch at Inka's head only to end up swinging at thin air since she wasn't there anymore but instead on the other side of the room, "Okay, I admit that was not quite what I thought you were going to do."

"Yep, that's certainly more powerful. How much did time seem to slow down?"

"Actually quite a lot to be honest. If I had that ability when I still played Turf Wars my skills as a charger user would have seemed impossible."

"Well, let me tell you something. That amount of adrenaline would normally kill an inkling," Ty said as he stood up, "but that's not how it actually works. Your body's adrenaline is average, but it's efficiency is increased by a lot."

"Huh...that's interesting to know, but I got to know...does it do anything else other than give me an amazing reaction time?"

"All senses, like hearing, taste, smell, etc. Are more sensitive when you need them to be."

"Hm...that's good to know," with a slight flick of her ears she shifted over a foot as Ploosh suddenly dove at where she had been only to end up flat on his face, "nice try."

Ty fought the urge to laugh as Ploosh got back up from the floor, "I told you before Inka...I'll get you for that incident before," Ploosh grumbled.

"Then you'll have to try harder to do so," she smirked slightly which caused him to growl in frustration.

"Ploosh, you ever heard about the story of the Gingerbread man?" Ty asked him.

"Uh...no."

"Well then. Once upon a time, a baker made a gingerbread man. The little cookie came to life once it was decorated, and ran away. The baker ran after it, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't catch him. He was left with one idea. You know what it was?"

"No. What?"

"Make a gingerbread house. He made it and decorated it, and then left it outside. Eventually, the gingerbread man went into the house, allowing the baker to finally capture the gingerbread man."

"Hm...so I just need to discover Inka's equivalent of a gingerbread house?" a grin slowly crept onto Ploosh's face as he stared at Inka.

"Ty...you're giving him ideas, that's slightly unfair."

"It wasn't meant to give ideas...somewhat."

She rolled her eyes at him, "Yeah, right. Sure you not giving him ideas..."

"Oh, snap, Ty, shouldn't we be trying to help clear stages?" Vybe jumped from her seat.

"We should, you are right. We can only take two others though..."

"What exactly do you need in terms of skill or ability?" Molly asked him.

"Let's see..." he took a glance at his phone, "Arowana Mall and Walleye Warehouse are the two we are doing. So shooters and chargers."

"Sounds like Inka and Squil to me but perhaps Squil should stay with Molly since she's not feeling very well," Ploosh said, "I can go instead. Even though I main in rollers I can still hold my own with a regular shooter type weapon."

"You two could also practice using your abilities as well," Vybe pointed out.

"Yeah, we could," Inka nodded.

"Let's get ready then," she paused, "um...do you two have weapons yourselves?"

"Yep," grabbing her bag she had from when they first arrived there she zipped it open to reveal her collapsed Hero Charger. A gift from Marie since she didn't really use it anymore just like how Ploosh's Hero Roller was originally Callie's, "but I don't know what Ploosh will do..."

"He can borrow my Hero Shot since I'm not going anywhere," Squil told her.

"That should work," with a nod Squil rushed into the room he and Molly had been sharing and came back a second later with his bag with his Hero Shot in it.

Walking over to a closet Vybe popped it open and pulled out an N'Zap 89. Tossing it over to Ty she then pulled a Hero Charger for herself out, "I'm ready," Ty told her.

"Same."

"Should we suit up?" Inka asked.

"My suit still isn't finished," Ty sighed softly as he said it.

"We can go casual instead," Ploosh quickly suggested, having pulled Squil's Hero Shot out he was in the middle of getting his ink tank on.

"Yeah, we get our stat boosts as well if we do that."

"Very well, we should probably get going then."

"Alright," having slipped his ink tank on Ty walked over to the door and opened it before turning back to the others, "Squil, Molly, Rex, Coral, We'll be off for now. At the rate we are going, you four are on your own for supper."

"Bye you four and good luck!" Molly called out as the group walked out the door.

* * *

"We are back! Sorry we were out for so long! Ended up clearing an additional stage."

Molly looked up quickly as Ty and the others walked through the door, "Oh? Which one?"

"Blackbelly Skatepark. We had assistance with that one..." Vybe responded as she took her's and Ty's weapon and put them away.

"Who was helping you out with Blackbelly?" Squil asked, taking his Hero Shot as he did so.

"The troublemakers from earlier."

"What?!" Molly quickly got to her feet, "Are you serious?"

"We wish," Inka groaned in response.

"That boy seriously knows his way with the Inkbrush..." Ty explained, "he wiped a whole lot of them out. We just covered the turf most of the time."

"Not to mention the girl...she was doing a pretty good job with that Areospray she had," Ploosh added in.

"Yep. And I'm probably stinking right now...I'm going to take a shower. Good night everyone," walking up the stairs Vybe waved quickly at the group before disappearing the rest of the way upstairs.

"Hm...yeah I'd hate to say this but I think we should call it a night as well," having been anxious most of the time while Ty, Vybe, Inka and Ploosh had been gone now that they had come back Molly felt somewhat drained. The fact that she hadn't eaten much since her eggs had finished forming probably wasn't helping her either. Having only sat down for a few minutes she got up again with Squil getting up as well.

"You still feeling a little ill Molly?" Ploosh asked her.

"Uh yeah...you could say that..." she avoided his gaze as he answered her as she had been avoiding most of the others gaze all that afternoon and evening when her 'stomach pains' had been brought up. If Squil didn't realize what was going on with her he'd find out soon enough.

"Well, I assume that Rex and Coral left already, considering they aren't here..." Ty commented, "but in any case, have a good night, you two."

"Alright," waving at the others Molly then opened the hidden door to her's and Squil's room and slipped inside. Taking a moment to calm herself down she walked over to the edge of their bed and sat on it as she watched Squil slide the door close before turning around, "you seemed so ready to leave when I said I wanted to go rest."

"That's because I'm showing concern for you Molly..." he raised an eyebrow, "are you saying I can't?"

"What? No, that's not what I meant..." she blushed slightly.

He blushed as well, "Sorry..."

"What for?"

"For making you nervous...or rather more nervous..."

"What do you mean?"

"Molly...I know you have a clutch..."

Her heart felt like it had taken a leap into her throat as she swallowed hard, "How long have you known?"

"Had a sinking suspicion a few days ago and this afternoon only confirmed it...Molly I've seen the very symptoms in my mother as she tried to have another kid with my dad..."

"Oh..." she blushed.

"Can I feel?"

It took a minute for Molly to figure out what he meant, "oh...yeah I don't mind..." she scooted over to one side to give him room.

Walking over to her he sat down next to her and gently placed his hand on her stomach. After moving it a bit he finally found the bump she had discovered earlier as he stared in awe, "I feel only one egg but there could possibly be a second or even a third."

"I hope not. Something tells me laying one would be hard enough as it is..."

His eyes grew wide, "You...wanted to have them?"

"I-I..." she stopped herself and took a deep breath before continuing, "I have been thinking about this for several hours...and I've come to the conclusion that I do...I want to have them, but I won't force you if you are not ready to have children Squil."

"You...really want to have children?"

She nodded at him.

"But you would be willing to give up that chance to have such if I say I don't?" he chose his words slowly and carefully as he watched her reaction.

"Yes...I want you to be happy Squil and I would totally understand if you feel that this would be a bad time to start a family but...I'm not sure I want to wait till we get back home...if we get back home..."

"You don't think we will?"

"We aren't even sure if there is a way to do so..."

"We can hope," he offered.

"This dimension is so much darker than ours ever was...how some people find hope in such dark times seems like a miracle to me."

"But even then once they do these people cling to it for dear life...just like how Ty does."

She frowned, "I thought you didn't like him?"

"My ability may be to freeze stuff but that doesn't mean I have to be cold to everyone I don't completely trust besides...I think I'm warming up to him."

"You're just saying that..."

"Perhaps," he pulled her closer to him, causing her to lean on him, "but if one thing is for certain it's that him and his beacon ability may be our only hope to get home."

"Hm...yeah," she stared directly into his blue eyes, "you haven't answered my question by the way."

"What question?"

"About the eggs..."

He sighed, "I suppose I haven't..." reaching up to her ear he gently stroked behind it as he leaned close to her other ear as he whispered, "and my answer is yes...I'd like to have them as well..."

She immediately pulled back from him with a look of uncertainty, "You sure?"

"Molly..." he groaned, "you have known me since we were both 14 and how many times have I ever gone back on some-" he never finished what he was saying since Molly had dove at him and started to kiss him profusely.

"Never...as far as I've seen," she answered as she took a pause from kissing him, "I just didn't want to rush in to it if you weren't ready," she wrapped her arms around his neck as she rubbed the back of it which caused him to purr loudly in pleasure until she stopped.

"Don't worry...you aren't rushing things...at least not for me..." a hint of a playful growl was at the end of his sentence as he started to return her earlier kisses, causing the two to fall backwards onto the bed as they started to both giggle.


	35. New Hope

_Author's notes: Yeeaaah...sorry about the hiatus again...school kept me busy..._

 _I'm out for the summer so my goal is to update at least once a week of one of my stories...hopefully maybe even more than that..._

 _Anyway hope you enjoy._

 **Chapter 35: New Hope**

Squil tried to be as quiet as possible as he slipped out of the room early the next morning. Taking several glances around he then slowly shut the sliding door but before he could completely shut it a sharp cry escaped through it and pierced the stillness of the living room, making Squil flinch.

Panicking he quickly shut it the rest of the way before turning around and groaning as he saw that it had caused Ploosh and Inka to stir from their sleeping positions on the couch.

"Oh...morning Squil," stretching his arms up into the air Ploosh tried to free himself from Inka, "you know it's kinda early to be getting up."

Squil tensed slightly at the comment, "I uh...yeah I know."

Ploosh frowned, "Then why are you awake?"

"Uh..."

"Uhm...good morning?"

Squil jumped as he yelped loudly, "Ack! I uh oh...hello," chuckling nervously he turned around to see Hanako pop into the living room from the kitchen.

She yawned, "What do you need?"

"Nothing Hanako. I'm fine...really."

She blinked several times as she stared up at him, "Uncle...what do you need?"

"Uncle? I'm being called Uncle now?" he swallowed nervously.

"Yes...and what needs do you have?"

"I uh..." looking up at the ceiling for a few seconds he sighed before looking at her again, "can you get either Ty or Vybe up? There's something I need to tell them."

"I guess..." moaning a little the light pink Inkling lumbered up the stairs and disappeared for a few minutes before coming back, "wait a few more seconds..."

Jumping down the last step a cloud of spores suddenly flew up into the air which caused coughing to be heard from upstairs before Vybe came down several seconds later, still trying to clear her lungs, "Hanako...why..."

"Because Squil needs you," she answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Uh...hello Vybe..." Squil chuckled nervously as he said it, "...sorry to wake you so early in the morning."

"Since I'm up...what is it?" Vybe asked him as she rubbed her eyes.

"I uh..." twiddling his fingers anxiously he looked up at the ceiling again before he looked down back at Hanako, "hey Hanako could you go upstairs for a bit? I'd like to speak to Vybe and the other two privately if you don't mind..."

"Ugh!" grumbling loudly the light pink Inkling stomped back up the stairs which was followed by her slamming her door shut.

Vybe stared at the stairs for a second as she shook her head before turning back to Squil "Now that sleepyhead is out of range, tell us what you need."

"I actually don't need anything...except your's and Ty's support with something..." he turns to Inka and Ploosh, "yours too..."

"Just say it already, man. You know me and Ty are willing," she insisted.

"Same with us," Inka added in as she and Ploosh got up from the couch.

"Okay..." taking a deep breath he tried to calm himself as he plowed on, "Vybe you knew of Molly's condition last night right?"

Her eyes almost seemed to brighten in understanding as she answered, "Yeah, I did."

He took another deep breath, "Well...we went ahead and currently she is laying our eggs..." as he said it a faint cry came from direction of the bedroom which caused all four to look over at where the door was.

"Eggs?! Molly has eggs?!" Inka squeaked loudly, "how did we not notice this before?"

"Shouldn't you be saying why didn't "you" notice before?" Ploosh asked before Inka whipped around to glare at him, "what? You are the more observant of us."

"Actually, Molly didn't know her body was making them yesterday until I explained it to her," Vybe told them, "and I'm going to go grab a container and a towel. You two are going to need it so that they don't roll away and are kept comfortable," disappearing into the kitchen she came a minute later with the two items in her hands, a smile creeping onto her face, "Squil, I'm proud of you two, and I'm sure Ty would be as well of he were awake."

He smiled back gratefully as he took the two items, "Thank you Vybe but there is still something that's troubling me and probably Molly too," slipping the towel over his shoulder as he held the container between his hands tightly, "we are not married and having these eggs now doesn't look particularly too good in most society's eyes."

"Yeah, that is going to be an issue..." looking up quickly Squil and the others saw Ty standing at the top of the stairs, "But there is one that will make your concern a speck of dust; No child should ever grow up without one or both parents. Persevere through your concern, and don't ever give up."

"Thank you Ty, we'll both try to remember that," he nodded gratefully at him, "I'm sure it didn't take too much for you to figure out what's going on."

"No, it really didn't..." he walked down the steps as he answered, "and I'm assuming she kicked you out of the room until she was done?"

Squil blushed, "Not exactly since she was already in pain, but when I realized what was going on I figured it was best if I gave her some privacy."

"Yeah...I just went to the bathroom in that lodge up at Inkline Ski Resort," Vybe told him, "it was only after I was done that Ty came running, so smart choice on your end."

He shuddered as he tried not to think about what she meant, "Call me a little naive but how long does it take anyway?"

"Depends on how many are being laid. It took a bit for me to lay mine because I had 3 of them..." her ear faintly twitched as she said it, "...and I can't exactly hear anything from in the room anymore."

Turning towards where the room was Squil tilted his ears to try to catch any sound. He heard nothing, "Molly?" walking over he gently knocked as he placed his ear next to the door, "are you okay?"

A solid minute of silence occurred as the group watched the wall before the hidden door slowly slid open. On the other side was Molly in her makeshift pajamas of a shirt and sweatpants but the tie on the pants was undone like she had hastily undid it and forgot to redo it. She also visibly looked exhausted as she looked at him, "yes...I'm okay Squil..."

"Ah, Molly, how many-" Vybe started before stopping herself, "Sorry, I shouldn't be asking..."

"No it's fine Vybe," Molly told her. Albeit tired she couldn't stop a smile from creeping onto her face, "and to answer you question...two."

"Aww I'm so happy for you!" Vybe hugged her tightly.

"Thank you Vybe, I'm pretty happy too," she answered as she hugged her back.

"Can we see them?"

"Sure, come on Squil," she led him into the room and around the bed to where on the floor laid two large marble shaped spheres, one being orange with a few random streaks of blue and the other being a complete mix of the two colors in a swirling pattern.

"They're so beautiful..." he kissed her gently, "you did a very good job Molly."

"You mean "we" did a good job," she excepted his kiss and gave him one in return, "without you these eggs wouldn't have come to be..."

"True..." he crouched down before picking up the mixed colored egg, "we better not keep them waiting..."

"Mhmm," reaching down she grabbed the other one before following Squil out of the room.

"They look so beautiful..." Vybe said as she looked at the two eggs, "Ty, come look at this."

He walked over with a cup in his hand, "You are right, Vybe," he said smiling "they are. Welcome to the world, squirts."

"Squirts?" Squil raised an eyebrow, "Ty they won't be hatching anytime soon so they can't possibly be called Squirts yet."

He took a sip of his coffee, "Might be parental delusions...but for some reason...I feel that they can hear us. It's odd and crazy, I know...but I have memories I can't begin to explain..."

"Like what?" Molly asked him.

"There's one in particular...everything looks yellow...my parents are adoring me..." he grabbed his head in concentration for a few seconds before groaning in frustration, "Mph...that's about it..."

"Ah, well I hope our children realize we love them both very dearly," she tightened her grip slightly on the egg in her hands. As she did so she silently vowed to protect it...even if it killed her.

Yeah," Squil added, "but I'm curious now...I'm almost positive the one you're holding Molly will be orange but...what about this one?" he lifted up the egg which allowed them to more easily see the small creature growing inside it.

"That won't be able to be determined yet," Ty started to say when the phone went off, "I got it," he picked up it up, "Hello? Ah, Dr. Jasper...wait, say that again?...Alright, I'm coming, hang in there and barricade that door!" he quickly put the phone down.

"Ty, what happened?" Vybe asked.

"We may have been on the offensive too much yesterday..." he sighed heavily, "some have been spotted coming at the labs."

"Do you need some help?" Molly asked.

"I hope not...but there must be something in the lab they want, otherwise, why bother..." he grabbed a jacket and his N'ZAP as he headed to the door. "If you want to come, you may as well. Just be more cautious...Vybe can look after the eggs if you are coming."

She froze as she stood in uncertainty while various thoughts swirled through her head. The egg in her hands she held close to her chest, "I...uh..."

"How about me and Inka help you out again Ty so Squil and Molly can stay with their eggs," Ploosh quickly suggested, "besides Molly you're probably still pretty tired from laying them this morning, you should rest."

"I...suppose you're right Ploosh," she replied hesitantly, "but please stay safe."

"I need to stay... I need my beauty sleep in full," Vybe stated with a yawn before going back upstairs.

"Ok. Ploosh, Inka, I will meet you there. I will go ahead." Ty said as he walked out, "If you are quick enough, catch up to me asap."

"Got it," Ploosh told him.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come?" Squil asked him, "I could help."

"Squil, you're a father now for which I'm really happy for you and Molly but Molly is gonna need your support now." Ploosh he looked over to her as she plopped down on the couch, "I'm sure you understand..."

He looked over as well with a sigh before smiling, "yes I understand Ploosh, but I'd have to agree with Molly on you two staying safe."

"Come on Ploosh we need to get going before Ty gets too far ahead!" Inka told him as she ran out with her own weapon.

"Alright Inka!" he yelled before turning back to Squil, "relax man, how long have we known each other?"

"Five years."

"Then you know I'll be careful," grinning he took off after Inka.

"I sure hope so..." Squil replied softly.

* * *

"And there you go Molly," placing a plate in front of his mate Squil smiled as her eyes lit up with joy.

"Thank you Squil, I never thought egg laying would make you so hungry..." without a moment's hesitation she started to eat it like a starving animal. As she ate Squil couldn't help but notice how she would constantly glance over at the two eggs in the container.

"And the staring sets in..." Vybe smiled, having noticed Molly's behavior as well, "and the body begins to prepare for the when the squishies hatch."

Molly's eyes grew wide as she stopped eating, "oh boy..."

"Molly, it's a natural thing. Trust me, I'm going through it as well," Vybe insisted.

"I know, I just didn't think it would sink in this fast..." she baried her face in her hands in embarrassment.

"Say Vybe you have any other bits of knowledge we could use for taking care of our eggs?" Squil asked Vybe as Molly let out a faint whine.

"Well, I usually take them with me most days. Don't want to lose them now...that would be devastating," she said walking over to the table, "Bathing them in your ink on occasion helps the shell stay clean, which does make for a healthier child in general."

"Bathing them in our ink?" Molly looked up, "I didn't about know that."

"I admittedly forgot about that process," Squil told her.

"I have a book on this kind of stuff. I can lend it to you if you want," Vybe offered.

"That would be nice."

"Hang on one sec, let me get it for you," she walked over to one of the booksheves, pulled out a book which she then handed to Molly "here you go!"

"Thank you Vybe," flipping it open to a random place brought her to the topic of preparation for when the squishies hatched which she immediately started reading.

"I will start prepping more lunch for us," Vybe told her when there was a knock on the front door, "Squil, do you mind getting it for me?"

"Sure thing," getting up he headed towards the door. Tilting her ears towards the his direction she listened as he opened it.

"I'm home, mom. And we have a starving guest," Jericho's voice rang out.

"Oh hey Jericho haven't..." Squil stopped mid-sentence before continuing hesitantly, "I feel like I'm staring at a younger version of my fiancée but I know I'm not. You must be Amber, Ty has told me about you."

Looking up Molly turned her head to see a 14 year old girl with orange tentacles next to Jericho. Currently she appeared scared out of her wits as Squil held out his hand to her, "Um...sorry...I am shy in this form...I can't handshake, but thank you..."

"Oh..." he dropped his arm, "well that's fine. Molly was pretty shy in her Inkling form as well at your age," he turned to look at her as he spoke.

The girl followed his gaze and gasped, "Oh, is this Molly? Omygosh! Another changeling! This is great!" she immediately started bouncing around in excitement.

Jericho gave her an odd look, "Calm down?"

"Oh...right...sorry," she blushed as she stopped jumping "it's just I've been the only Changeling that I know of ever since I left that horrid place. I'm overjoyed to see another one."

Molly bit her lip in worry. If she was talking about what she thought Amber was talking about bringing up those particular memories she figured was tough for her, "Well uh...thank you Amber," she dog-eared the section she was in before shutting the book, "to be honest aside from my brother you're the first Changeling I've ever saw too."

"Well, I have six more coming, so at least that's also good."

"S-six?!" she nearly fell backwards off her chair at the news, gripping the edge of the table she stared at Amber in disbelief.

"Yeah. And she's the first one in recorded history to do so," Jericho stated with a hint of a smile.

"I-I'm really happy for you Amber," she stammered out, looking over the girl's shoulder she realized she had two ink tanks on her back which most likely held her eggs, "do you know when they'll hatch?"

"Not soon, that's for sure," she nudged Jericho, "but this man has the guts to help me out."

"Well that's very nice of you Jericho," she looked over at her own two eggs with a smile, "I myself just had my own first clutch."

"And they look beautiful!" Amber said as she walked over.

"Thank you...the father let you in if you're wondering."

Congratulations, you two!" she paused, "oh gosh, I almost forgot how starving I was..."

"Well, what do you want?" Vybe asked her, "you know I can't read minds."

"Hmm..." she glanced over at Molly's plate, "I'm not a big fan of shrimp...I don't know..."

"We do have fish."

"That will do."

"So you don't like Shrimp huh?" Squil asked her as Vybe went to work making more food, "sadly Molly can't say the same. Her meat cravings when she was forming the eggs was mostly for shrimp which normally is her favorite anyway."

"There is nothing wrong with shrimp Squil," Molly told him, "but it's probably something in my ancestry that makes my desire for it so much..." she paused as a distant look came into her eyes.

"Oh no...not again," Squil groaned, "I swear that has gotten worse over the last week or two..."

"Hello? Molly?" Jericho asked as he waved his hands in front of her face.

"Huh...what?" she shook her head as she quickly snapped out of it, "oh...sorry about that..."

Suddenly an orange cat jumped onto the table, startling her a little until she realized it had bright orange eyes, "Don't worry Amber I'm fine. I just tend to drift off sometimes..." she smiled at her, "I must admit I've never been a cat before, a seagull once, but not a cat..."

"She can do more than that...If you were at the labs earlier, she was a...carp, I forgot what it was called..." Jericho said, "giant lizard with wings..."

Molly's eyes grew wide as she recognized what he was talking about, "A dragon?!" she turned to Amber, "you turned into a dragon?! Where on Terra could you have gotten DNA for that?!"

Jumping back down she shifted again, "Ty told me he found my file from when I was being tested on to become a bio-weapon. The lab concocted many strands of DNA that they would then either grow animals from or put it in my food because they couldn't grow it. A dragon was one of the last ones they gave me."

"Hm...interesting, but I'm very sad to hear you had such a difficult start to your life," she bit her lip in worry, "my brother named Marlin was kidnapped and was used to create a serum to turn Inklings into Octolings when he was 16. Thankfully we were able to get him back and stop the Octarian who was doing this."

"Science can be amazing, but at the same time, downright disturbing," Vybe stated as she placed a bowl of cooked fish on the table.

"Hm, yeah," suddenly a thought occurred to Molly, "say you two...what happened to Ploosh and Inka?"

"They stopped to do some shopping...or at least that's what I saw," Jericho told her.

"I saw it too," Amber added in.

"Ah, ok then. I just didn't want to be wrong..." his face suddenly lit up, "oh, and Ty's sword changed when we were there."

Molly quickly became more concerned then before, "Really? How so?"

"It's almost like it transformed. I got it on video," pulling his phone out he showed them a video of it changing as it split down the middle while it glowed brightly.

"That is very strange..." was Squil's only response.

"He splatted over 10 in one swing," Jericho added as the video ended.

"There's something really odd about that sword..." Molly said as she stared at the still image of the transformed sword, "I just...can't put my finger on it..."

"That's not all I got..."

"Huh?" she looked back up at the green Inkling.

"There's more. Got a picture of the...thing...that was leading it," tapping at his phone he showed them a large male Octoling that appeared to have certain parts of his body made of metal instead of flesh and blood.

"Oh my...a cyborg Octoling?"

"That's not the one that tried to attack me and Ty that one time though..." Vybe said, making Molly turn to her in surprise.

"Oh? What happened to that one?"

"It flew away once it realized it couldn't beat me when I was in Hyperstorm," Vybe said simply which made Molly shudder inwardly.

"Huh...well at least it left but looks like you now have another one to deal with," Squil remarked.

"Jasper said there were two of them. Mastema is the one Amber flung at the ocean. The other one was named Trinity," Jericho said, "though from the descriptions mom gave me and comparing them to Mastema, the two might be different models. Mastema looked more like a mech, as much of the metal armor was configured just like some form of armor-suit fusion. Trinity was probably more organic."

"I have no idea what you just said, but that tin can was quite a bit more weighty than the other Octos that were with him," Amber pushed away her empty bowl.

"And I'm sure we haven't seen the last of this Mastema," Molly sighed. A feeling of claustrophobia and dread coming over her at the prospect of dealing with the encroaching war...especially now that she was a mother that needed to protect her family.

"Yeah... With that high and mighty attitude he was sporting, he will come back," Jericho said, "I swear he has a self-inflicted honor system..."

"Hmm...I wonder why? There must be some form of motive behind it."

"Well...we don't know enough to make a good guess, so it's out of our our general range," Vybe told them.

"Well it probably won't do anything to dwell on it," Squil added, "we probably have plenty of other things to worry about anyway..."

"That's right. The fact that twice they have attacked the city means that their leader want's us dead, and this time...permanently."

"Death is his name...right?"

"Yeah. Ty calls him Santa as a joke."

"Ah, so that's where that came from...I was wondering about that."

Turning around they watched as Ploosh and Inka came through the front door.

"Ah, welcome back," Vybe said, "hungry?"

"Yeah," Inka nodded.

"Alright, Let me get started on a brunch then," she started getting out pans.

"I probably wouldn't mind a little more shrimp if you don't mind Vybe?" Molly asked with a slight blush.

"I'll make you some more," Squil told her as he came up behind Vybe to get a pan for himself.

"Oh...thank you Squil," her blush turned a shade darker.

About an hour later Vybe finally brought the last plate of food before sitting down herself, "Alright everyone. Dig in!"

"Gladly," Molly told her as she started to eat.

"Mmmmm... Mom, this is good," Hanako said, having come down at the smell of Vybe cooking.

"I'd have to agree with Hanako these are really good," Ploosh added as he tried to grab more hash browns before Hanako ate them all.

"Hm, yeah," Squil nodded before turning to Amber, "say Amber, do you mind if I ask a question?"

"Go ahead."

"You said earlier that you don't feel all that comfortable in your Inkling form...if that's the case then what form do you feel comfortable in?"

"You may be surprised, but small animals are my favorite."

"Really? Like what?"

"Cats, dogs, those kinds of things."

"Ah, Molly really only has one other form that she likes to be in other than her Inkling form," he turned to her, "right Molly?"

"I suppose so," she admitted, "but the one you're referring to Squil often scares people so I don't really change into it that often anymore..."

"What would that be?" Vybe asked.

"Human," she answered, "but as I said I haven't changed into it in awhile..."

"Huh...I know that would be useful, knowing what is coming."

"How so Vybe?"

"It seems so close...things are escalating...it might be wrong because my gut feeling usually isn't right, but a creature unable to be splatted could change the tides if war," she smacked herself upside the head, "now I'm sounding like Ty..."

"True, I guess you're right Vybe but am I really the only Changeling who change into a human?"

"I don't know..." Amber told her, "I mean, I could try to bite you in your human form, but I don't think that works..."

"Actually...I have proven that works," she stood up, "otherwise I wouldn't have aquired this form from my brother..." taking a quick breath she felt the familiar burning sensation in her chest before it flowed to the rest of her body as the shift took over and she went from Inkling to Octoling.

She opened her eyes to see Amber staring at her in slight awe, "Then I guess it works."

Molly let the process reverse itself, "Do you want to try Amber? You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Not right now...not when I'm hungry, anyways."

"Very well," she sat back in her seat, "to be honest I'm not sure how painful it would be since our venom is so different from most Inklings' venom and I have never had another Changeling bite me."

"Huh...interesting. Never thought of that."

"The only reason I know this is because I tested my own venom. In it I found a special type of enzyme that breaks apart every part of the cell except nucleic acids such as DNA."

Amber gave her a look of contemplation until her face lit up slightly, "I wonder...could we copy abilities that way?"

Molly felt a lump start to form in her throat, "What do you mean Amber?"

"Like, can we possibly copy...say...Ty's ability, by biting him," Amber suggested.

"Why...?" Vybe asked, a look of concern on her face now as well as Molly.

"Good question Vybe, why would we do that Amber?" Molly added.

"I am curious...I don't think anyone has tried before," Amber told her "sure, I'm already a bio-weapon, but I don't think it would be a bad idea to test it."

"I'm not sure our Changeling ability works like that Amber because we can copy the DNA of other beings but I don't think we can copy the DNA of other Inklings."

"I mean, we could try...nothing wrong with that, I hope?"

Molly frowned, "I don't think we should try it until I've discussed this with Ty first. However if you would like to be able to shift into a human at some point I'd be more then willing to help you with that."

"Ah, let's do it later, when I'm not hungry..." she rubbed her chin, "hmm... I wonder if all this DNA I have is affecting me in other ways?"

"It could possibly explain why you had six eggs instead of the normal clutch size of one, two or three," Molly supplied to her, "also human DNA allows me to touch water without any ill effects."

"Yeah...that makes sense," she reached for another forkful of food when her ear suddenly twitched and she looked up confused, "guys, do you hear that?"

"Yeah..." Vybe told her as she got up, "and Hanako and I know what it is..."

Hanako shivered in response as Amber and Jericho looked at them confused. Pricking her ears forward Molly soon heard what Amber had heard already.

"Laa La-la La-la-la La-la-laaa... Laa La-la LA-La La-la-laaa..."

The four looked at each other before Squil turned to Vybe, "What on Terra is that?"

"Chrysalis..."

"Chrysalis?"

It was then when Ty came through the door to the patio half dragging another Inkling, "Bad news...they are coming."


	36. Battle Plans

_Author's notes: I should probably apologize in advance for large amounts of dialog again. There simply didn't appear to be a better way to do it and I know I've got complaints about it in the past._

 _That being said this will hopefully be the last time this will occur for the rest of the story. Thank you for the patience with me, it's been difficult to work on this over the last few months._

 _Anyway, enjoy._

 **Chapter 36: Battle Plans**

Squil immediately stood up, "What?! Who's coming?"

"The Octarians..." Ty told him as he continued to carry the Inkling into the living room, "within a week, they will be on our doorstep."

"Here in Inkopolis?" Inka shuddered a little, "there will be panic in the streets if they do."

"We must stop them," Molly stood up as well, "but...is there enough of us to fight back so many?"

Squil turned to Ty, "How many agents do you have here in your dimension Ty?"

"Nearly all are on hiatus...Aizel is one of the active ones. Coral, Rex, Futo...those are the only ones I can contact right now."

"Including us four that's only ten..." he gritted his fangs in frustration, "if we're having to deal with an entire Octarian army we'll need more then ten people..."

Molly was about to agree when a thought occured to Molly which made her pause, "We're not fighting all the Octarians..."

"Yeah, we leave that to IMO and the AI-Weapons."

She shook her head, "No...that's not what I meant Ty. I think I may have an idea of who might be willing to help us fight Death."

"Who?" Squil turned back to her confused.

"The Octolings," she answered.

"Yes!" Vybe jumped up, startling some of the group, "great idea!"

"Hm...true. Vybe you did say that the Octolings don't follow Death," Squil commented as he started rub his chin, "but the problem would be most are still trapped in the work camps you mentioned before."

"We could free them..." Molly turned to Ty as she said it, "...right Ty?"

"Right," he nodded.

"I know I'm not in a state to intervene..." turning around to the couch behind them the group looked over at the pale yellow Inkling which currently was half sitting up on the couch, "...but I know where a few of those concentration camps are...major ones..."

"Going for the larger ones could get us more help," Molly pointed out.

"Yes they could Molly but they could also be more dangerous to get in and out of," Squil stared at her with a look of concern.

"Don't worry Squil, I'm sure it will be fine," she quickly insisted, "if we work together it should go more smoothly."

A large flying machine of some form flew up to the window as she finished speaking and appeared to be looking into window at them, "Ty Colorian, Futo has been located at Krak-On beach. Should we get going?" it's voice was similar to the Peace Walker's voice which made Molly shudder a little. She still was having trouble getting used to the large machines that seemed to be everywhere in this dimension.

"Yes, Chrysalis, we should," with a nod he started walking up to the machine.

"Will he be alright?" Molly asked, looking over at the Inkling as she said it.

"Yeah...he healed me up...I just need a nap..." he started to close his eyes as he said it.

"Oh...alright," she turned back to Ty, "when you get back there's something I would like to discuss with you Ty."

"Alright. I should be back in a few. Vybe, mind keeping an eye on Aizel for me?"

"Plz do..." Aizel mumbled as the Octoling stumbled into the apartment as Ty disappeared with the machine, the one green eye they could see had bags under it like she hadn't slept well recently, if at all.

"Whoa Aizel...are you okay?" Molly quickly walked up to her.

"Long night...baby sitting a stinking spoiled brat beats the tar outta ya..." she replied bitterly.

"Who's child were you watching?"

"Some veteran war commander's son..."

She didn't dare ask her if it was Inkling or Octarian. Clearly the experience hadn't been a pleasant one to the Octoling soldier, "Oh sorry to hear that Aizel."

"Molly that doesn't mean our kids will be troublesome too," Squil told her, wrapping his arm around her as he said it.

"I know...but we won't know for certain until they hatch."

Aizel stared at them mildly puzzled until she gave up and went to go flop onto the other couch in the room.

"We'll tell her later...after the rests," Squil said.

Molly nodded in agreement as she turned back to Vybe who had just pulled out her phone, "I've been wondering something...I think there's a few other people we know that could assist us...the twins; Felix and Flowix, The Squid Sisters, The Octo Sisters...those are off the top of my head."

"Wait..." the pale yellow Inkling sat up again, " _The_ Octo Sisters? Krae and Kane?" he seemed to become somewhat surprised about the news which confused Molly.

"Yep. So far, they have been our eyes and ears in Octo-Valley."

"So they are like the Squid Sisters? They sing as well?" Amber asked.

"Yep," Vybe grinned.

"Octo Sisters huh?" Inka said, "I don't think we have anyone like that in our dimension..."

"I wonder how different Callie and Marie are here than back home..." Molly muttered more to herself than the others.

Tapping on her phone Vybe walked away to the other side of the room and started to call someone. After a minute she ended it and walked over to the group again, "They will be here in an hour."

"Oh...okay Vybe. I guess we'll just wait for them," she let out an uneasy sigh as she said it.

* * *

They waited almost exactly an hour before they all heard a knock on the door which made Molly tense up a little.

"Come in!" Vybe yelled.

"Oh boy..." she stood up from her seat as well as Squil, "well, here goes nothing..."

"I'm sure they'll be fine Molly."

As the door opened Callie rushed in, "Hello! We are here!" she stopped when she saw the four "oh? Who are these snuggums?"

"C-Cal?!" Molly said before she could stop herself. Her hand flew to her mouth as she turned pale.

"Huh? How did you know my undercover name?" she gave them a confused look as Marie stood behind her equally puzzled.

"I...I," her face turned from white to red, "I'm not sure how to explain Callie..."

"What did you call us for, Vybe?" Marie turned back to the cyan Inkling as Callie continued to stare at Molly which made her turn even more red.

"The Octarians are coming..." Vybe responded.

"The lobster backs?"

"No. That's the British, which are humans, and are also extinct."

"Only somewhat extinct..." Ploosh muttered before getting hit in the back of the head by Inka, "oww!"

"What do you mean by that, Greenie?" Marie asked him.

"Uh..." he took a step back as he turned red himself.

"Ugh this is getting us nowhere," Inka growled in frustration as she started pointed to each of the group, "Hello my name is Inka Krakowski and this is my boyfriend Ploosh Seagrove. This is Squil Aquatica and his fiancée Molly Colorian. We come from another dimension."

"I-Inka?! What the squid?!" Ploosh stared at her like she was crazy.

"Well with you not thinking before you open your mouth and Molly accidentally revealing she knew Callie it was only a matter of time before they find out so why wait?" she answered him in an as-matter-of-fact tone.

"So Marie, as you can see, nothing considered normal," Vybe told her with a slight sigh.

"Ah..." Marie replied, mildly surprise, "And since we have time travelers as well, why not dimensional travelers..." she looked around the room before frowning, "by the way, where's Ty?"

"Getting Futo."

"Ah...say, why not bring over the time travelers as well?"

"Um..." Vybe immediately dropped her gaze as she responded, "I guess?"

Molly placed a hand on Vybe's shoulder which caused her to look up, "I'm sure they're fine Vybe...right?"

"Yeah... I might as well ring them up..." Vybe answered as she pulled her phone and took it into the other room.

"I haven't met them yet...I wonder what they are like," Jericho replied.

"I'm sure they're fine," Molly said as she looked where Vybe had gone with a slight look of worry.

"Yeah...but no offense Molly I really don't want to meet our children before they hatch okay?" Squil whispered to her so the others couldn't hear him.

"I understand Squil," she responded before nuzzling his face, "I'm not sure I would either..."

It was then that Vybe came back "They are on their way. Should only be a minute or two."

"Oh cool," she turned to look at the kitchen with minor anxiety, "uh...be right back..." she disappeared into the kitchen coming back with the container with the two eggs in her hands, "sorry...not having them in my sights was starting to make me nervous..." with a sigh she set on a side table.

About a minute later the suddenly heard the elavator loudly ding which made Vybe tense up, "Oh no..." she followed it up with a sigh.

It was then that Marie was run over by a Cyan boy holding another Cyan boy and a yellow girl.

"Sorry we are late!" the boy said, not even showing a hint of exhaustion as he continued to carry the other two.

"Arata, please put us down..." the girl squeaked in fright.

"Yes! What Hikari said!" the other boy agreed, looking just as freaked as Hikari did.

"Ryuu, calm down..." Arata insisted.

"Silence!" Vybe shouted, causing the three to freeze as they looked at her.

"Whoa..." Inka turned to face Vybe, "your children listen to you quite well..."

"Thank you..." Vybe told her, she then returned her attention back to the three. "First of all...you aren't late...second of all...you just ran over Marie," she pointed to the light gray Inkling as she picked herself up.

"Oh my gosh I'm sorry!" Hikari cried out as she started to bow in apology.

"Hikari, this isn't really like you..." Arata muttered

"Leave her be, bulldozer..." Ryuu told him.

"Hikari is it? You really do kinda look like your father..." looking at the yellow Inkling Molly stared intently at the brilliant blue eyes that were almost exactly like Ty's, "are you a Beacon too?"

"Yes, I am...I'm also a hybrid inkling," Hikari said, "half Firefly squid and half Neon flying squid," she raised her two main tentacles to show fins coming off of them, something she had seen on Vybe's tentacles.

"Ah...I see. Well pleased to finally meet you Hikari, my name is Molly Colorian."

"Ah nice to-" she froze, her eyes getting wide, "W-wait... Auntie?"

"I uh...what?" her eyes briefly flashed as she took a step back, "I can understand Jericho and Hanako calling me that but why you Hikari?"

"Oh...sorry...I forgot to explain," she blushed a little, "in the future we come from, dad would always say that you were needed once more...but you never came," as she said it she started to look a little sad, "he told us stories about how you helped him save the world once...there are many many other stories...and I've always wanted to meet you in person."

"Oh..." her expression turned to one of slight worry, "I'm sorry to hear that Hikari...well hopefully we'll get to know each other a little before I have to go home," she looked over at the eggs, "something tells me I'll be here for a bit as you can clearly see Hikari."

She turned to follow her gaze "Ah...I see...I don't know when I have to go...so yeah..." she smiled wryly.

"Well...would you like to see mine and my fiancé's eggs Hikari?"

"Sure, where's the harm?" her expression brightened as she walked over.

"Well here you go," picking up the container from the table Molly showed her the two eggs inside it.

"Aww, they are adorable," she looked back up at Molly after minute, "are these recent?"

"Yes...I just laid them this morning," she couldn't stop herself from smiling as she said it, "it still almost feels like a dream sometimes that I'm a mother now."

"I bet it is. It's also quite a bit of responsibility...but from the stories, you sound responsible."

"So...does that mean you know who the rest of us are?" Ploosh asked her hesitantly.

"Yes..." she pointed at him before pointing to the other two, "you are Ploosh, you are Inka, and you are Squil."

"That really does seem strange to hear that someone who we have never seen knows us by name," Inka replied somewhat uneasily.

"Yeah," Squil agreed before turning to the two cyan boys, "and is it safe to ask you if you have abilities like your sister?"

"I take after mom. Mine is Generator," Arata explained, "though I can use the stored electricity throughout my body..."

"Hey that's pretty cool, Arata," he then turned to the other one, him being cyan like his brother but with orange on his tips, "what about you uh...Ryuu is it?"

"Yep," he nodded, "I...um...can change the temperature of things in the vicinity...I also know the best times to microwave food," he blushed a little with the second comment.

Molly frowned slightly, "that's a mutation isn't it Ryuu? Because I don't recall that being a normal ability for cyan."

"It is a mutation, thus the orange tint instead of a normally darker blue," he pointed to his tentacles.

"I see," she stared at them for a moment, "well that's interesting to know since Ploosh has a mutation himself."

"Ah..."

"Good cod I want some zees danget!" Aizel yelled as she glared at them for a minute, "thank you," she added as she flopped back down.

"Perhaps we should take this conversation elsewhere," Inka suggested as she stared at the Octoling

As Molly was about to answer the doorbell rang through the apartment, "I wonder who it is..." Vybe said as she opened the door and found two blue inklings with chargers on their backs, "Ah! Felix and Flowix."

"Wassap?" The boy cried out as he waved.

"Felix, we aren't even in the room yet," the girl rolled her eyes at the boy, "hi Vybe."

"You two are on time. Come on in!" she moved aside and the twins walk in freeze when they see the large group of people.

"Woah...did not expect this many people," Felix remarked.

"Hello, my name is Molly and this is Squil, Ploosh and Inka," she told the twin Inklings, "and you're right...there is quite a few of us now..."

"It may be a while before Ty gets back..." Vybe explained to the twins, who quickly nodded in understanding.

"Hopefully not too long...there really is something I want to discuss with him," Molly softly mumbled in concern.

Another hour or so passes before Ty walks in with two male Octolings, one blue and the other cream. Looking around the blue one rubs his hands together, "Ah, is this how many mouths I'm feedin'?"

"Well, assisting, yes," Ty told him, "guys, meet Futo and Nemar."

"I'm Futo, chef and ping-pong pro," the blue one explained with a smile.

"I'm Nemar, one of the original spies during the first great turf war and I work with Cuttlefish," the cream one added.

"Hello, I'm Molly Colorian and this is Squil, Inka and Ploosh," Molly said as she held her hand out to Nemar, "we are agents as well."

"Ah, nice to meet you too," he shook her hand.

"You two are probably the third and fourth male Octolings I have ever met in my whole life," Molly explained as she looked them up and down, "and I didn't know Octolings could come in any other color other than maroon."

"Well, they do, it's just very rare," Nemar replied.

"Hm..." she continued to stare at him for a bit.

"So...strategy time," turning on the TV and messing with the settings a bit Ty turned to Marie, "Marie, check your tablet," she did so and in a second the TV lit up with a complicated map of Octo Valley.

"Hm...your Octo Valley looks a lot like ours," Ploosh remarked.

"Just wait until you see the deep valley," Nemar takes Marie's tablet and taps a few times, plugging in a data device after he did so. Immediately, the map expands, revealing domes twice the size of the ones above, and ones even larger than that, "Deep Valley..."

"Whoa..." Squil's leaned in for a closer look, "we've never even remotely seen this much of our Octo Valley even with all 7 of us Agents back home exploring areas..."

"That's probably because it takes an octoling to know this area exists."

"Well did have an Octoling technically speaking giving us Intel."

"Squil...my brother doesn't count," Molly told him, giving him a minor glare as well as a shake of her head she did so.

He hesitated, "I guess not..."

Nemar looked at the silent conversation between the two before returning his attention to the screen, "Anyways, intel suggests that Death has a base in the one of the domes in the higher reaches of Deep valley."

"But the tricky part is getting into the base," Inka said as she looked at the map.

"Which is why we're going to free some of the Octolings..." Molly turns to Ty for confirmation.

"Yep freeing them should get us enough leeway to get down there and wreck some stuff," he quickly explained.

"So where are they keeping the Octolings?"

"Well..." the Inkling from before came up behind her, causing her to shudder a little at the sudden appearance, "...let me show you," he held out his hand for the tablet in Nemar's hands.

"No, just tell me..." Nemar insisted as he stared at the tablet for a bit, "um...how do you use this?"

"Ugh, give it to me," Marie snatched it from his hands and turned back to the Inkling, "where?"

"Domes 21 and 88," he told her as with a tap she zoomed in on the map onto two fairly large domes surrounded by a fenceline.

"Those don't look like they'll be easy to get into," Inka stated uneasily, her eyes shimmering a little, "how do you plan to get in there?"

"21 is easier, 88 is way behind enemy lines unless we were to take a submarine. 88 has an outlet to the ocean."

"Hm..." Molly stared intently at the map before turning to him again, "how far and deep is the outlet?"

"Deep enough to crush a splattershot to the size of a grape...and the distance is quite far."

"Molly..." Squil started to say in a worried tone.

"Relax Squil...I thought I would double check though..." she quickly told him.

"Yeah...you wouldn't like the results of the significance of that place either..." the Inkling continued.

"Alright then let's focus on dome 21 then."

"Now, the layout of the camp prevents escaping, but doesn't protect too well at keeping things out."

"So busting won't be a problem...just getting back out."

"Exactly, I have heard they recently have also been gaining octolings even though..." he suddenly freezes, "wait a minute...Inklings have been going in as well...I've seen it..."

"What?! But why?"

"I don't know...nor do I want to know..."

Molly shuddered in agreement, "well even with that in mind how are we going to get in without them raising the alarm?"

"That is a good question...hmm..." he sat down.

"Maybe snipe the guards?" Aizel suggested.

"We probably won't have enough time to take them all out before word gets out we're outside their doors," Inka pointed out, "we need to find a way to get in without them realizing we're there."

"You know...I bet one of the inventor teams at the lab have an answer," Ty says.

"True, I know Omega and Zulu teams have been working on stealth stuff for a while now," Vybe added.

"Perhaps we should go talk to them about it then," Molly suggested.

"Yeah, we should." Flowix nodded.

"Okay what else should we take into consideration?"

"Do we have a floor plan of the base?" Ty asked, turning to the pale yellow Inkling.

"That's the reason why it's hard to get out of. It's like a mystical labrynth from the ancient's mythology stuff: it changes its layout."

"How is that possible?" Vybe asked, "you can't instantly move a room to another location in a solid building like a prison."

"It's like a sliding tile puzzle. There's an empty space, and every room is the same exact size. The empty space is also the exact same size."

"Okay this might sound like a stupid or crazy idea but couldn't we just prevent the rooms from moving while we're in them?" Ploosh asked making them all stare at him

"I don't know," the Inkling told him.

"If we could, we should find a way to do it," Aizel replied.

Ploosh made a loud coughing noise in the back of his throat in response.

Inka raised an eyebrow at him, "you?"

"Yes, Ploosh?" Ty asked, confused.

"Well I was thinking since I am telekinetic..."

"Absolutely not!" Inka cried out, immediately standing up, "you are not using your ability for that!"

Ty frowned, "Inka, calm down..."

"Why should I?!"

"Because I haven't said anything yet either.

She fumed for a few seconds before sitting back down.

"Thank you, Inka," Ty coughed, "now...Ploosh, I have to agree with Inka here on this because what you are talking about will exhaust you quickly. I would have considered it if you had more practice with it, but since you only got your ability yesterday, I have to settle with no."

"Uh...right...I understand Ty," blushing faintly he sat down as well next to Inka who still was glaring at him.

"Although...you could do some mind games as a distraction. Yanking weapons out of hands from around the corner for example."

A mischievous grin crossed over his face, "oh yeah...I could totally do that."

"There should be a control panel in one of the static rooms...I believe that's where the commands come from," the Inkling continued.

"Sounds like someone needs to sneak in there then," Molly said.

"Yeah, but how will we extract the volunteer?"

Silence filled the room as nobody dared look at each other for several minutes.

"I guess the person closest to that room will have to do it..." Futo said, breaking the silence, "shall I prepare rations?"

"Sure." Ty said. "What other things should we worry about?"

"Each cell door is electrified. Not enough to kill, but enough to deter. Other doors are fine to touch. If we must, the vent system is big enough to move around in squid form."

"That's good," Molly replied but had by this point drifted elsewhere. It wasn't until Ty had walked up to her that she regained focus.

"You ok?"

"Wha...? Oh yes Ty I'm fine," she gave him a wry smile, "although now that you mention it there is something I want to discuss with you...privately if you don't mind."

"Ah. Upstairs then?"

"Yeah, that would be nice."

The two head up and Ty stops them in front of one of the bedrooms "So...what is it that's bothering you?"

"Amber brought up something that I feel I should tell you."

He raised an eyebrow, "What would that be?"

She hesitated before continuing, "Ty...do you know Changelings can transfer DNA between one another?"

"They can do that?"

"Yes we can..." she swallowed nervously, "it's the only reason I have Octoling DNA."

"So...sorry if I sound naive, but what exactly are you getting at with your first question?"

"Well strangely enough Amber didn't know either so we started discussing it and she brought up anther idea that to be honest had never occurred to me..."she paused for a moment before continuing, "...and the idea involved biting another Inkling to get their ability."

"That...seems possible, but I'm not completely taken on the idea."

"I'm not either but the fact that Amber had such an idea makes me worry that she might try it."

He frowned, "I hope not...because until we determine that it can be done, I would rather not to find out in a dangerous situation."

"Agreed, I thought it best I warned you of such a possibility occurring."

"Alright, thank you," it was then that they suddenly heard a heated debate from down stairs.

"Yeah, well, Tacos are easy to make," Felix told the others

"Yeah, but can it be put in a bag like a sub sandwich can?" Aizel said.

"Do I even want to know?" Molly asked Ty as they started heading back downstairs. The conversation became more intense as they came back.

"You can't exactly put hot sauce on a sub," Amber replied.

"Well you can only put beef into tacos. Subs can have many varieties of meat." Arata said.

"Wrong, there are chicken tacos and ham tacos," Vybe corrected.

"Vybe is right," Ploosh added in, "I once had a very delicious fish taco seasoned with some tangy lime."

"Why does this even matter?" Inka groaned as the conversation continued, "shouldn't we focus on planning our mission to get the Octolings out?"

"To be honest... I say we talk to the expert chef." Jericho said as he turned to Futo, having ignored Inka's comment.

"Ugh!" with a groan she grabbed a pillow and shoved her face into it. Ty face-palmed as he groan as well while Molly shook her head at the ridiculousness of the entire thing.

"Can ya not ask me while I'm making the grub?" Futo asked them.

"I'd agree with Futo on this one," Molly said as she sat back down next to Squil, "I think it's honestly a personal opinion on what they prefer."

"Exactly," Flowix replied, she quickly pinched her brother who yelled out in a foreign language Molly didn't recognize.

"Anyways...what do we know about getting there?" Vybe asked.

"That it will probably be difficult," Ploosh remarked sarcastically.

Pulling the pillow away from her face Inka angrily punched him in the shoulder which caused him to yelp.

"So... no plans yet?" Ty sighed.

"Sadly no," Inka answered him.

Ty sighed again as he shook his head, "We should assign roles, then we can be dismissed until tomorrow...this morning already put enough stress on me..."

"Sorry..." the Inkling told him.

"I don't think you did anything wrong," Squil insisted, "by the sounds of it if you hadn't contacted us you might not have survived that attack with that Mastema guy or however you say his name. But Ty is right we should assign some roles to each person."

Ty takes out a notebook as well as a pen, "I made a list of roles that need to be filled. Now, I already assigned a few people," he turned to the pale yellow Inkling, "Jasper, you are our Intel gatherer for inside the camp. Get us as much info about the types of rooms and how many of each," he then turned to Aizel, "Aizel, you need to gather Intel from the outside. Guard rotation stuff and the like. If you have a role you believe you excel at, do it," He added as he turned to the others.

"Got it!" Squil, Molly, Inka and Ploosh nodded in agreement.

"Are you sure about me being an intel gatherer?" Jasper asked Ty hesitantly, "what if I were to-"

"You know more about that place than any of us and probably are still able to get into highly confidential information," Ty insisted

"Yeah, you seem like you know the place pretty well," Ploosh agreed.

Jasper sighed. "Yeah... and the reason why is-"

"Not only that, but you can still-" Ty started to say.

"Shut up and let me speak!" Jasper yelled, making the whole room fall silent in shock, "there is a reason why I know so much about that place because I helped to build it! When I say what I know of the place, it's because I built those systems! I was a traitor of my own race and not only did I do it for money, I did it because I didn't know anything until recently about their true intentions. I have the only copy of the data used to build it and I have a huge price on my head. I want to help you guys, but I can't go there because if I die, that info dies with me!" he went back to his seat as he looked to be on the verge of crying, "I'm sorry...but I can't do that role you assigned me, Ty..."

Molly was the first to speak after the silence, "Jasper...you remind me very much of my brother actually..."

"Molly..." Squil placed a hand on her shoulder, "...perhaps now is not the time to bring that subject up."

She looked up at him ready to protest but as she looked into his eyes she sighed, "perhaps it is..."

"Well...then that spot is open then..." Ty sighed heavily, "admittedly less to do now, bit it's still open."

"Perhaps you could show one of us the plans Jasper," Inka suggested to him.

"I can but how am I going to plug an octarian data format into an inkling format machine?" he asked in response.

Silence fell on the room again for several minutes before Molly spoke up again, "Could you relay the information through means of communication to the rest of us while you stay here?"

His eyes lit up, "That is possible."

"How about through these?" reaching up she pulled the tiny radio receivers out of her ears and showed them to the entire group, "if we can strengthen the ability of it to catch radio waves I think these could work."

"Were you wearing those the whole time?" Squil asked her with a knowing smile.

"Only recently," she blushed a little.

"It would only work if you can get radio to go through dirt and metal..."

"Oh..."

"What other signals can you do with it? Satellite should still work."

Her eyes grew wide, "I've never thought to use Satellite signals when I created these but with some help I might be able to create new ones that can..." as various thoughts ran through her head a grin slowly crept onto her face.

"Oh boy...haven't seen Molly this eager to create something in years," Inka commented as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as well.

"What are your plans?" Ty asked Molly.

"I'll reuse most of the parts from this one to make the new one but I might need a few other things to allow it to transmit satellite signal instead of radio and once I have that figured out I can make more of these pretty quickly. I could probably have them done in a day or two depending on how many we need."

"That would be a lot of them."

"In that case it might be closer to three of four," she grinned even more at the thought of a challenge.

"We have support for the intrusion force covered," Felix and Flowix said almost in unison.

"I'll be happy to be on the lookout to make sure things go smoothly," Inka suggested for herself.

"And I can be distraction!" Ploosh cried out, causing Inka to roll her eyes at him.

"Ok..." Ty quickly jotted down some notes, "Squil, Molly?"

"I'll go turn off the controls on the static rooms," Squil answered.

Molly's blood turned cold as ice as she turned to him, "What?! Why you?!" she quickly demanded.

"Well I don't see anyone else volunteering..."

Ty started to say something when Vybe gave him a glare before turning to Molly, "Well...Molly, why do you oppose Squil's choice?" Vybe asked.

"I-I..." as she started to speak her head suddenly turned blank, preventing her from coming up with a good reason. By the sounds it could be a potential death mission but she knew she had no right to force another to do it but didn't want to lose Squil...

As the unfairness of it all sunk in she gave up, "I don't know..." she stared down at her lap, not daring to make eye contact with the others for several minutes.

"It's settled then...right Ty?" Squil stared at him as his gaze turned slightly cold.

"What's with that stare? It's horrifying," he asked him as he cleared his throat, whether from fright or something else Molly couldn't tell, "in all seriousness...it's a two person job in terms of infiltration. Keeping each other's backs protected. The reason why I made it two is because we don't know what we are dealing with. Is that agreeable?"

"It is I suppose..." he turned to Molly, "want to help me?"

"Me? Of course but Squ-"

"Great," he hugged her tightly. A habit over the years he had started to do with her when he didn't want to talk about something anymore that bothered him. With a nod she excepted it albeit hesitantly, "is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

"We will discuss further planning tomorrow morning. For now, everyone needs a rest," Vybe stood up, "and the Squid Sisters need to get to map rotations."

"Of course..." standing up from her chair Molly held up a hand to the squid sisters, "was nice seeing you Cal, I mean Callie."

"Nice meeting you too, Molly," Callie shook her hand with a smile, "now, Marie...I don't think we should stall much more."

"Agreed." Marie nodded as two walked out of the apartment.

"Hm...they do have differences from our squid sisters," Ploosh quietly remarked.

"I have finished with the rations!" Futo exclaimed.

"Cool," looking at it she suddenly grew a little hungry but she pushed it aside, "they certainly look good."

"Why thank you! I certainly take pride in what I do."

"I'm sure you do," she let out a long yawn as she said it.

"Me and Sis are heading home," Felix told them as his sister pushed him towards the door.

"Bye!" Flowix added as they left.

"Bye you two," she told them as a thought suddenly occured to her, "Oh Amber! Where is she anyway?"

"Right here." She peeked out from behind the couch.

"You wanna try that thing we mentioned earlier?"

"Sure."

"Okay," Molly took a deep breath Molly as for the second time that day she let the burning sensation travel throughout her entire body as she shifted into her human form. After she had finished she took one look at herself before rolling up her sleeve to reveal her bare arm.

"So...I just bite?" Amber asked.

"As far as I can tell," she answered. Looking up she couldn't help but notice how intently Jasper was watching the interaction between her and Amber. He looked away quickly however as soon as he realized she was looking at him.

"Ohkay..." walking up to her she grabbed her arm and with another moment's hesitation she sank her upper canines into it.

A feeling similar to the burning sensation of changing erupted from where she bit and slightly flowed down her arm before with a tugging sensation it faded away as Amber started to suck her blood. After swallowing a few mouthfuls she let go before wiping her lips.

Sucking in a quick breath as the pain flared up she grabbed a towel to dab at the puncture marks in her arm. After a minute they started to close back up as her body started to heal them, "if it works it will take a few minutes to become able shift into a human as far as I can tell."

After a bit Molly quickly noted the early signs of Amber shifting as she winced a little and her eyes briefly flashed just before the rest of the process started. She soon grew several inches taller until she was close to Molly in terms of height and her tentacles became medium length ginger hair as her markings faded away.

After a minute a young teenage girl was now standing in Amber's place, "This is cool!" she squealed excitedly as she looked at herself, "and why do humans not lay eggs? How do they even have babies?"

"Uh..." Molly blushed unsure how to answer the question, "that's a kinda complicated answer Amber..." as she looked at her she suddenly realized Amber's stomach was partially swollen.

"Still though, this is cool! Though I wonder why I'm slightly fat..." She placed a hand on her stomach before wincing. Her eyes immediately grew wide, "A-are they..."

"Are they...what?" Molly asked, looking at her more closely a sense of dread crept into her heart as she suddenly realized what had happened to Amber.

"Um..." she felt it once more, this time not putting her hand down. "Well...I think this is what they meant by human pregnancy..."

"Wait...what?" Inka looked over at Amber confused, "are your eggs...inside you now or did you have a second clutch forming?"

"My eggs were on me when I transformed...I think they changed along with me..."

"Oh my...that would potentially be really bad if your eggs were a lot closer to hatching...especially since you had six..." Molly said as she swallowed nervously.

"I would probably look like a balloon." Amber giggled a little as she returned to her inkling form and ink tanks with her eggs reappeared.

"Yeah...well for future reference then make sure you don't have your eggs with you when you turn into a human...should keep that in mind myself..." she sifted back into her Inkling form as well.

"Yeah, I will keep that in mind."

"You should also have immunity to water now but I wouldn't recommend swimming in it unless you know what you're doing."

"Ah, true," she blushed, "I need to learn how to swim..."

"I might be able to show you sometime if you want."

"Yes plz do!" she shouted, as she clung to her.

"Oh! Okay, okay...I will," she carefully pried the young orange inkling from off her, "but that is going to have wait...we have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it it seems..." she yawned again. Looking behind her she saw that Ty was already past out laying on Vybe's lap.

"Oh husband of mine...you stress yourself too much sometimes..." she gently stroked his head.

"I can't exactly blame him," Squil replied as he grabbed hold of Molly to prevent her from falling over asleep, "we should all head to bed most likely though."

"Agreed," Vybe agreed with a whisper. Standing up she started carrying Ty upstairs while Hanako headed to her room.

Jericho appeared lost in thought for a few moments until walking over Amber spoke up to him, "You mind if I sleep in your room?"

Jericho nodded, and the two sleepily walked upstairs. After a minute Vybe poked her head out from upstairs.

"Good night you four."

"Goodnight Vybe, good night Ty," Molly mumbled as she grabbed the ink tank with her's and Squil's eggs before following him into their room.


	37. Break In

_Author's notes: Even though these chapters are, (hopefully to you guys as well as me...it gets boring to write lots of dialog,) less dialog heavy these chapters aren't getting shorter and here's the main reason; Secrets of the Inklings is going to be drawing to close soon. By my estimate after this chapter there is going to be around four or five more chapters._

 _When I went on my hiatus for school I kinda kicked myself a bit because I had hoped to finish before next summer so I could put most of my focus into just Legends before continuing on to my next planned project but it was near impossible to find the time/will to work on writing, which is how I ended up here in this situation..._

 **Chapter 37: Break In**

Sitting up Molly sighed as she looked over at Squil as he remained passed out next to her. Looking over to the end of the bed was a crib with their two eggs in it which were faintly glinting in the early morning light.

She smiled at them, a swelling feeling of joy filling her for a minute before the feeling she felt when she woke up returned. Looking over at Squil one more time she quietly slipped out of the bed and out of the room.

She paced around the living room for several minutes before eventually slumping down into one of the chairs. Sighing again she reached into her shirt and pulled out a silver chain. Up until the night she had made love with Squil only she and her mother knew she had it since it was her mother who had given it to her about three years ago as a present for her sixteenth birthday.

She lifted up the first tag to read it:

 _Colorian, Walter_

 _Ink Type: Orange negative,_

 _Codename: Firefly_

After staring at it for a minute she held up the other tag, her eyes getting misty as she did so:

 _"For my home and the ones I love I fight to live in peace"_

"Daddy...I wish you were here...m-maybe I wouldn't be so scared then..." she sniffled a little as she fought back tears. Hugging the tags to her chest her body shuddered with several small sobs, "please help me find the strength to do this..."

She froze as a sound drew her attention. Slipping the tags back into her shirt she made sure the chain wasn't visible anymore before wiping the tears that had slipped down her face just as a light upstairs flicked on.

Stepping down the steps as quietly as possible Vybe slipped into the kitchen. Walking over to the fridge she started pulling several items out of it and placed them on the counter in a mildly frantic manner.

Molly stood up and walked over to her, "Hello Vybe...what are you up to?"

The cyan Inkling squeaked in fright as she nearly dropped what she was holding in her hands, "um...h-hello..."

She took a step back as she held her hands up in apology, "I'm sorry Vybe, I didn't mean to startle you I just..." she sighed softly, "...couldn't sleep..." she looked at the objects in Vybe's hands and quickly realized they were canisters of herbs. Yarrow, Chamomile, cinnamon, peppermint and some other ones as well, "not to sound rude or anything but...what are those for?"

Her worry grew as she set what she had down on the counter, "It's Ty...he hasn't woken up yet and he's shivering slightly..."

"Do you think he's sick?"

"I don't know..." grabbing some warm water she started sticking some of the ingredients into it and mixed it up.

"I hope he'll be okay going good on the mission today..." the silver chain against her neck suddenly felt icy cold. She rubbed her arms before looking up at Vybe again, "are you nervous?"

"Somewhat..." she admitted, not looking away from the glass she was stirring.

"I was afraid you would say that..." Molly's eyes flashed in response as well.

"Let's get this to Ty..." she headed back upstairs.

Molly started to follow her, "Want some help?"

"Yes...thank you," she smiled gratefully down at her before continuing to move up.

Following Vybe up to the second floor and into hers and Ty's room she froze in shock in the doorway as she saw Ty laying in the bed. His pale skin seemed almost deathly so as he randomly shivered violently in his sleep.

"He does look a little ill..." Molly bit her lip as she continued watch him.

Walking over to the bed Vybe sat on the edge next to him, "Ty, honey...wake up."

He let out a weak whimper as he scrunched his eyes in pain.

"Has he ever been sick before?"

"Yes, but not like this..." Vybe shook him a little and he finally opened his eyes. They almost seeming to have lost their brilliance and now reminded Molly of dull blue stones instead of sparkling sapphires.

"I don't feel good..." he eventually managed to say, his voice sounding a little rough like he had a sore throat.

"Are you hot?" Molly took a step forward towards him.

"No..." he moaned, "I'm freezing..."

"Well, drink some of this," Vybe offered him the cup.

Taking it gingerly he took a sip of it and started to gag. His face scrunching up at the bitter taste. Vybe rubbed his back in comfort as he continued to cough.

Molly took a step back, "Perhaps I should go check on Squil and our eggs while you take care of him," the feeling of a wave of sickness coming at her was starting to cause her anxiety to get worse as she remained in the room.

"Ok then, see you in a bit," Vybe told her as Molly slipped back out.

As she headed back down the steps she suddenly heard Hikari and Ryuu talking in the kitchen. As she poked her head in though she quickly realized it wasn't a gentle conversation.

"You know how you act when you eat too many cookies this early," Hikari told him in irritation.

"But I was hungry, I am worse when I'm hungry," he retorted back.

"Starving! Not hungry, starving! And cookies are not a good way to fix hunger!"

"But it's tasty," the cyan Inkling suddenly curled his lips into a smirk "...and you know how the boys look at you and slobber over themselves."

"That doesn't even relate to how you just ate half a package of cookies!" she shouted as she stood up from the table, hands firmly on the table with knuckles white "and I am not tasty!"

"Oh really? I keep getting comments about you, and some are mighty interesting..."

She growled, "Shut. Up."

"Make me!" he blew a raspberry at her.

In less than a second she had a knife in her tentacle and had raised up into the air as her eyes burned with anger.

Ryuu's eyes grew wide as he ran away from the table.

"You gone and done it now boy!" She shrieked as she started chasing him down.

"Hikari!?" Molly stepped into the kitchen, "what on Terra are you doing?!"

She ignored her as she took a swipe at Ryuu, "Get back here!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry!" he cried out as he dodged the attack.

"Hikari?!" coming up behind the girl she quickly took the knife from her and tossed it into the sink before whipping her around to face her, "what were you thinking?! You could have severely injured him!"

"It was my fault..." Ryuu said with a look of regret, "she hates talking about her body...I pushed the envelope..."

Molly stared the yellow Inkling in the eye, "But why...? I think your body looks fine Hikari."

Tears started forming in the corners of her eyes, "Well, when boys keep eyeing me and saying disturbing comments..." she shook as she started cry, unable to continue what she was saying.

Molly kneeled down as she hugged her, "It's okay Hikari. You are a wonderful person and don't let horrible things that some boys say get you down."

"It's usually 'hey babe, can I get a hug' or something similar and it just starts making you think that they just want your body..." she choked back tears, "I've never had to deal with that in the future..."

"I'm sorry to hear that Hikari..." trying to calm her down Molly reached her hand higher up unto her back and started rubbing it while Hikari continued to cry.

Looking up after several minutes of this she noticed Ryuu was looking out the window, clearly deep in thought, "What is it Ryuu?"

He hesitated before answering, "I think that, in most terms, Arata, Hikari, and I weren't really ready for this to happen...not so much in what the fight ahead has in store, but for how society in the past was. We didn't know much of anything before coming here, and in some ways it's worse than what we had to deal with in the future."

" _He's right...this was far worse than probably any of us could have anticipated..."_ Molly continued to rub Hikari's back as she looked between the two young Inklings before her, "... _and who knows if all of us will survive..._ "

She looked up as Ty and Vybe slowly came down the stairs with Vybe helping Ty. He currently was wearing a sporty bobble hat, an olive colored ski jacket and a pair of white snow boots. As they stepped down the last step Ryuu and Hikari looked over at him as well.

"I look ridiculous..." Ty groaned as he tugged at the jacket. Molly could feel Hikari shake a little as she tried suppressing a giggle.

"Oh my...Ty..." Molly let Hikari go as she fought the urge to laugh as well, "what's with the new outfit?"

"To keep him warm, of course," Vybe swatted Ty's hand so he'd stopped tugging at the jacket, "and I did choose gear that benefit your play style better."

"Well I don't think it looks that bad," looking behind herself Molly found Squil standing behind her with the ink tank canister with their eggs in his hands.

"I guess it's become canon now..." Ty sighed which earned him a look from Vybe.

Squil nudged Molly in the shoulder as he stood next to her, "Molly...shouldn't we rinse our eggs? You laid them several days ago and we still haven't done it yet."

"You two still haven't done that?" Vybe looked mildly concerned as she said it.

Molly rubbed the back of her head in response with a blush, "No...to be honest I'd been too busy with so many other things that we kinda forgot..." between making their headsets functional underground and multiple other things for preparing for the mission Molly had been working a lot. If Squil hadn't forced her on multiple occasions to come to bed so she could sleep she may have been no better than Ty was this morning.

"We should probably do the rinsing now before we forget again," Squil pressed as Molly nodded in agreement.

"Do you two need help with doing it?" Vybe asked. Ty had by this point slipped out of her grasp and now was sitting on the couch while holding a pillow to his chest.

"Perhaps...I've never heard about it until you mentioned it so I'm not sure how it works..." Molly admitted.

"I haven't seen it done either," Squil set the ink tank down on the counter.

"It's actually kinda easy..." Vybe said, she grabbed a bowl and some old towels. "It's almost like polishing silverware, just less pressure applied."

After a half an hour of instruction Molly and Squil had washed the two eggs with each using their own ink. As Squil set the mixed egg back into the tank with the other one Molly smiled as she saw how they both sparkled in the light.

"They look wonderful!" Vybe exclaimed happily.

Molly nodded, "Yeah...I wonder if they'll be true twins like me and my brother Kell was."

"It is possible."

"What I'm wondering is whether you'll have two boys, two girls or one of each..." walking out of the bathroom Inka had steam following her as she came over to them, her tentacles still slightly wet from her shower.

"Who knows..." Ty grumbled as he hugged the pillow tighter.

Inka turned to face him and she looked him up and down for several minutes. Eventually she turned to Vybe with a groan, "please tell he's not upset about a change of clothes is he?"

"He is..." she sighed.

Inka rolled her eyes at him before shaking her head in disbelief, "are we ready for the mission today?"

"No..." Ty grumbled again.

"Oh please, hon, get over it. Sooner you get better the...well...better..." Vybe told him. The look he gave her immediately afterwards reminding Molly of an upset kid being told to eat something they didn't like.

"Especially since we don't have much time now to do this mission."

Molly turned to as Ploosh walked in from the front door, his expression full of concern.

"Where have you been?" Squil asked.

"I just took a walk," he answered.

Squil tilted his head sideways in puzzlement but as Ploosh quickly gave him a quick shake of his head he stopped and turned back to the others.

"Was Arata with you?" Hikari asked, walking up to him.

"With me? No...I was just walking around the floor. I haven't seen him."

"Then he must be running around to release some electricity..." Hikari explained, "He sometimes discharges if there's too much stored..."

"Is it me or does that seem to be more of a issue with male Generator Inklings versus female?" Inka asked her.

"Well it's dangerous either gender. There are two sub types of generator, one with greater storage, one that can use electricity anywhere in the body. Arata is the second type."

"Oh..." Inka's eyes shimmered a little as she took a step back in unease, "...that makes sense."

"Which is how we got here yesterday in under 3 minutes."

"Really? I guess he does seem pretty hyper..." Molly commented.

"Mhmm," Ryuu nodded in agreement. Yesterday's events probably still had him a little shaken up as Molly remembered how freaked out he and Hikari had been with Arata carrying them.

"Well I hope he's alright," she eventually said.

"Yeah..." Vybe agreed, a hint of concern clear on her face.

Squil rubbed Molly's shoulder gently as he grabbed a strap for the ink tank still on the counter, "Vybe do you know where we can store our eggs while we're gone?"

"Well, first you may want to put them in a drawer or someplace out of sight, after that is up to you."

"Then perhaps we'll just store them in the secret room," Molly stated, "that okay with you Squil?"

He nodded "It's fine with me," he headed towards the room and disappeared for a minute before returning.

"Alright, let's meet up in Octo Valley," getting up quickly from his spot Ty headed towards the door.

"Alright then, let's do this!" Ploosh cried out as he pumped his fist in the air. Behind him Inka let out a soft groan as she shook her head at him before they followed Ty.

Looking at Ryuu and Hikari Molly gave them a small smile as she followed Squil out.

As they Traveled through the streets Aizel and the other Octolings eventually met up with them as well as the other agents as they struggled through the crowds until they made it to the sewer grate.

Walking towards it they were surprised to see someone waiting there next to it. The Inkling was a tall cyan male and as they got closer Molly was able to see that like Vybe he was a neon flying squid Inkling with the tell-tale fins on his arms as well as piercing blue eyes that currently were staring down at the grate in front of him.

Molly swallowed nervously as she finally realized who it was before looking at Inka, Squil and Ploosh who equally had uncertain expressions on their faces.

"It's been a long time, old friend..." cyan Inkling said as he looked down at the grate, "I wonder how Cuttlefish is doing..."

"D-dad, what are you doing here?" Vybe asked as she walked up to him. She looked uncertain as to whether to hug him or not.

"I was walking through the plaza when I saw all of you. I figured that I would give Cuttlefish a hello and then be off."

"A-at least Marlin ain't here...I'm not sure he'd cope well," Ploosh muttered. Inka quickly gave him a glare as she silently told him to be quiet who in turn looked at her back with a look of obliviousness.

"Wait...when did you meet him?" Vybe asked him as the silent argument continued between the two behind her.

"A while ago, actually. He was the one who introduced me to your mother, after all."

"Hm...perhaps Cuttlefish in both of our dimensions had a tendency to pairing up squids into relationships..." Molly couldn't help but let a small smile creep onto her face.

"Perhaps...but I'd still love you Molly nether the less," Squil gently said as he nuzzled her, "and I'm sure we'll be good parents as well when our eggs hatch..."

"Alright...let's see the old trilobite," Aizel replied, diving into the grate.

"Alright," swallowing nervously Molly dove in after the Octoling with the others following behind them.

Climbing up from the sewer Molly found herself looking at a very familiar scene of an clearing with a pale blue sky and a few wispy trees with an old rickety shack several feet away. "I almost feel like a kid again..." she whispered to herself as she stood up.

"Hmm? Why is there a rave party at my own establishment?"

Molly froze as she saw Cuttlefish come towards them from the shack, her hackles raising a little in the process as well as she couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief, " _He looks exactly like our Cuttlefish..._ "

She jumped a little Ploosh was the first to speak up, "Rave party?! What's that supposed to mean Cuttlefish?!"

"There hasn't been this many people here since I built this hut," he gave Ploosh a serious look, causing Ploosh to drop his gaze after a minute.

"We know...sorry about that Cuttlefish," Molly told him, having finally gotten over her initial shock, "but numbers are what we need for this mission."

The elder Inkling raised an eyebrow, "Where are you youngsters going to?"

"We need to get down to the deep domes," Nemar answered.

"Say what?"

"We have to Cuttlefish...Inkopolis is at stake if we don't," Molly explained.

Cuttlefish's expression immediately became concerned, "Oh dear...I believe the dome that Octavio was fought in should be the door...I don't know how to open it however..."

Molly bit her lip, "Ty? Any clue as to how to get in there?"

"I know," Futo said, making everyone turn to stare at him.

"You...do?" Inka raised an eyebrow at him.

"Beforehand I used to work down there on occasion," he explained.

"Oh...well I guess that makes sense..." she didn't take her eyes off him as she reached up for her charger in caution.

"Let's move before we lose our focus," Ty said, heading off towards where they all knew the dome was.

Vybe leaned towards Inka, "Looks like Ty finally fixed himself..." she whispered.

Inka made a look that was a cross between uncertainty and worried but didn't say anything as she lowered her hand back to her side.

* * *

It took them an hour to get to the dome. Once in there Nemar started looked at the dome with a large amount of care

"This looks right..." he muttered.

"Oh boy..." Molly started to grip her Hero brush more tightly as she watched the Octoling as he climbed onto it.

Tapping around with his foot he did it until his ear twitched as if he had heard something. Crouching down he ran his hand over the metal until he found a keypad and pulled it up, "There we go."

"No turning back after this huh?" Ploosh asked, fidgeting a little bit as he said it.

"We got on this platform due to a bridge, dude," Arata told him which earned the young Inkling a glare from Ploosh. The tension between the different members of the team was getting thicker by the second.

"Son, you got this?" Nemar asked, turning to Futo.

"Yep," walking up to the keypad he muttered faintly under his breath as he started pressing buttons. After a minute the faint click of something disengaging, followed by a loud thud as a hatch on the side of the dome opened and hit the metal surface rang out through the area.

"It's going to be slightly cramped on the way down...if I remember correctly..." Nemar jumped down through the hatch.

"Alright," reaching down to press a button on her black and orange communicator she heard a faint bit of static from her microphone transmitters before it cleared up, "Jasper? You copy?"

"Yes, this is more clear than I thought...interesting." He seemed mildly surprised which for some reason bothered Molly but she ignored the feeling, "after the trip down you will land in another valley...more like a city, but who cares...anyway, the kettles to most lower domes are there."

"Alright, good to know," she turned to the rest of the group, "everyone ready for this?"

"Ready," reaching up to his small headset Ty pressed a button which caused a small green light to come on as he swapped it from radio to satellite.

"We are all ready," Vybe added as each person did the same thing to their own headsets.

"Alright," Molly looked down into the hatch with a sudden feeling of dread. Her eyes glowed a little for a second, "Ty you want to go first?"

He looked in as well before sighing, "Looks like enough room for four..."

"Okay...I guess me and Squil will jump in too..." Molly swallowed as she slipped her Hero Brush onto her back before climbing in.

After the four of them are in, Nemar closes the hatch before turning to press a button on a control pad on the wall.

"Rex is going to hate this so much." Ty said before they felt the elevator go down with an electronic whirling sound.

"Wha...why?" She jumped a little as the elevator suddenly shuddered which in turn made her shudder herself.

"He hates small spaces," Vybe explained, "did you see him earlier? Pale as a ghost."

She had but hadn't dare ask him about it, "At least he's not afraid of the dark..." she shuddered again as she clung to Squil who rubbed her back as they went farther underground.

Suddenly they were all blinded by a bright light coming through the window of the elevator which caused them all to cry out before covering their eyes.

"Goodness gracious the brightness settings need to be turned down," Nemar grumbled

"Ugh...someone please turn that down quickly then..." Squil added as he baried Molly's face into his jacket to protect her from the glaring light.

After a minute Molly pulled away from him, blinking back tears before letting out a gasp.

Miles of factories laid before them, the sounds of machines echoing throughout the huge cave as they all stared.

"Woah...okay...did not expect this..." Ty said softly.

"What are they doing with all this?" Squil asked

"I don't know," they all looked up as a loud clunk rung through the air before they saw the factories suddenly shift positions. By the time they had made it out of the elevator the entire layout of the factories had changed leaving only the city-esque area untouched.

Molly stared at it in disbelief for a minute before shaking her head, "Well in either case we better get moving," transforming her Hero Brush into its staff form as she pulled it out she started moving forward with the others following her.

As they Traveled through the area Molly glanced around at the surrounding buildings and structures as memories of various missions came to mind that she had done with Squil, Ploosh, Inka, even Marlin after they had gotten him back before he had decided to disappear out of their lives for months on end before showing for a few days before disappearing again.

She clenched her hands tightly, remembering the last time she talked to him as they came to an area with platforms with domes on top of each one of them.

Ty lowered his mic towards his mouth, "Which one?"

A small amount of static answered him, making the group become uncomfortable.

"Jasper?" Molly asked as well into her own set with frown.

"Sorry about that," Jasper said, he seemed slightly out of breath like he had been running which seemed a little odd to her but she pushed the thought aside, "the one you need should be on platform 26, which when leaving the elevator, is directly ahead."

"Thank you Jasper," looking ahead Molly nimbly rushed over to the platform just as she heard the elevator came back for a second time.

Looking over across where they had traveled she watched as Rex leaped out of it in clear panic. Felix immediately tackled him to the ground as Aizel and Flowix rushed over to help Felix.

Her eyes widened as she watched before leaning over towards Vybe, "You certainly weren't kidding about that..."

After the three had finally calmed Rex down they walked over to them just as the last of the group arrived in the elevator and rushed over. As one by one they entered the new dome.

Nimbly landing on the ground Molly held her staff in her hands as she looked up to find a ten foot high fence in front of her. Having been one of the first in Aizel walked up to her with her rifle in hand.

"We'll need some way to get past that fence," she told her as she looked over at the fence as well.

"Hmm...any ideas guys?" Molly turned to the others

"Fly over?" Felix suggested.

"No," Aizel frowned at him.

"Go in guns ablaze?"

"No," she had started scowling at him in irritation.

"Go under?" Inka suggested.

"Maybe..." Aizel stamped the ground a few times "Feels lumpy...I think we could..."

"How exactly would be the tricky part..." Molly added.

"Maybe we can use the landscape around us to our advantage..." Ty replied.

She frowned, "How so?"

"Look, a cliff face inside the fence. Guess where you get to the top?"

Molly looked at him, still confused, "um...?"

"The rocks," He pointed to a climbable section. Seeing it Aizel immediately went to work climbing with ease.

"Oh..." Molly could feel her face turning red as she put her Hero Brush on her back before walking up to the rock feature. Rubbing her hands together she started to climb up with Ty right behind her.

Sitting at the top she pulled out a rope to tie to the top of the fence to make it easier for the others to get up. Looking over she saw Ty and Aizel do the same, "These should suffice," Ty remarked softly.

"I hope so..." Molly heard her mutter as she tied her's to a large rock pillar before hoping down onto the other side.

Jumping down as well she looked towards the large compound with concern before turning towards the others as they started came towards her. She placed her hand next to her ear to block out some noise, "Good...Jasper where do we go from here?"

"You need to sneak in the front..." she winced a little as static started entering into her ears as he spoke, "...Th_ Front r_m is one _f the on_y roo_ tha_ _n't move."

"Jasper!?" she gritted her teeth as the static became worse before shaking her head, "Ty? You get what he was saying?"

"The front room was one of the only rooms that didn't move," he answered her as he started climbing down one of the ropes before dropping down to the ground.

"So where do me and Squil go to stop the rooms from moving?"

"At f_ve o c_ck sh_, Th_y shoul_ be alli_ned," suddenly a loud squeal of feedback came to her ears. Quickly clawing one of her speakers out of her ear she let out a faint cry of pain before looking at Ty and Vybe as they winced visibly as well.

After a minute the feedback stopped leaving them in silence.

"Jasper?" holding the speaker up to her ear there was nothing, "Jasper?!" she shouted as loud as she dared into it only to be met with nothing, "carp...this isn't good..."

"I know...let's just finish this as quickly as possible," moving carefully Ty slipped behind some crates.

Molly dove behind another stack as well as Squil came up behind her. Taking a deep breath she slid her Hero Brush out from its sheath before moving forward again as Ty and Vybe did the same.

As they moved towards the entrance Molly kept glancing around for signs of Octarians but as she continued to watch she realized there appeared to be nothing. No patrols about, no guards, no Octarians in general. If it weren't for the clear signs of some habitation she would have thought the dome was abandoned.

She shuddered at the thought just as Ty slipped a card out of his pocket that he had gotten from Jasper. Running it through the scanner there was a faint click before the door popped open.

"At least that works..." Squil sighed in relief.

Molly was about nod in agreement when the fact it worked suddenly dawned on her, _"why would Jasper's card still work if he hasn't been working with the Octarians for years..."_ her eyes grew wide, _"...unless..."_

"Something wrong?" shaking her head she suddenly found Vybe and the others staring at her.

"No...I-I don't think so..." she insisted, "I'm probably just imagining things..." she dropped her gaze as Squil tried to make eye contact with her.

"Well, let's get in." Ty said as he opened the door.

Molly, Squil, Ty and Vybe walked into a lobby area which was just as empty as the area outside the prison, "Weird..." Ty muttered as he looked around with his weapon held up.

"Agreed..." looking around she saw only one way out of the lobby other then the way they had come. Glancing at a clock on the wall her heart nearly leapt from her chest as she saw it read 4:56.

She bit her lip, "The two of us better go find the controls...even though we lost communication with Jasper we can still communicate locally with each other...be ready to go get the Octolings out when we give you the go ahead."

Ty nodded, "Right, be safe, you two."

"Come on Squil," Molly grabbed his arm as they both ran through the door and down the hall.

"Molly...why are we...running?!" Squil asked between pants.

"If we don't make it to the control room before five..." they heard a loud thunk before the hallway before them suddenly shifted sideways to be replaced by another hallway.

"Molly don't move!" he pulled her back and against the wall as the hallway continued to shift until it had stopped.

"Thanks Squil..." with a smile she walked towards the hallway, "we have less then a minute before it moves again."

"How do you know that?"

"It was the one part of Jasper's message I understood...the rooms align at five o clock!" she started running.

"Oh carp!" he picked up the pace as well.

Running down the hallways they heard creaking like gears slowly starting to turn around them after less than a minute, "Kelp! Why do they have to be so punctual about this...?"

"Come on Squil," turning a corner they spotted a door at the end of the hall, "it's right there!" she suddenly stumbled forward as a crack on the floor made her fall to the ground.

"Molly?!" dropping down he helped her up as the creaking suddenly got louder, "Molly...we're out of time..."

"No we aren't!" her eyes flashed in panic as she went into a full out sprint for the door. A few feet from it she saw the wall start to move towards her.

"No!" leaping for the door she yanked it open and rushed into the entrance. She sighed in relief only to have Squil crash into her back a second later, making them both land on the floor of the room as the door shut behind them and the room shuddered as it moved.

"That was too close..." Squil panted a little, "we could have ended up a pair of squid pancakes."

"...with syrup on the side?" a smile crept onto her face.

Staring at each other the two started laughing for several minutes before picking themselves off the ground, "you must be okay if you're willing to crack jokes right now..."

"I'm gonna blame Ploosh...I've heard too many jokes from him," looking at the desktops she was shocked to see how many buttons and switches there was covering it. Looking up she realized there was half a dozen screens that were showing various hallways in the prison, "uh...which button?"

"Well sadly I think that was something Jasper was supposed to tell us but since he's not available..." he started looking at the desktops, "come on...there has to be a way to stop the movement of the rooms in case of emergencies..."

Scanning the rest of the room Molly loudly groaned as she spotted a large switch on the opposite wall, "Squil..."

"What?" He turned around to see what she was looking at, "oh..."

"Yeah..." walking up to it she pulled it down and the room suddenly shuddered to a halt before going in the opposite direction it had been. Unable to stay on her feet she landed on the floor at Squil's feet.

"We really need to stop crashing into each other...we've been doing this since we first met," he gripped the edge of the desk until the room had stopped moving.

"Yeah...but I doubt we'll stop doing it anytime soon..." standing back up she looked at the screens to see that all rooms had stopped moving. She immediately reached up to her mic receiver, "we're here...you better get moving Ty."

"Alright..." he quickly responded. On the screens they watched as Ty and the others slipped into the first room of cells and start setting the prisoners free.

"So far so good..." she leaned over the screen to watch it carefully.

"Yeah, even with the headsets cutting out we were able to get it done pretty easily."

She bit her lip, "yeah..."

He leaned over next to her, "Molly...?"

She sucked in a quick breath before turning to him, "something about this suddenly doesn't feel right..."

"What do you mean?"

"Squil I tested those headsets dozens of times so they wouldn't cut out mid-mission...but it did anyway..."

"Yeah...but there was no way to 100 percent ensure that it wouldn't fail..."

"True...but what about the fact that beside the prison itself tried to crush us we haven't had a single Octarian try to stop us...?"

"Molly..." he grabbed her arms, "...are you saying we were let in...?"

Her eyes flashed, "Yes..."

He let her go as he took a step back, "it's a trap, we have to warn the others," he reached up to his headset, "Ty! Mol-ack!" he yelled as a bloom of blood appeared on his jacket as he dropped to the ground.

"Squil!" she dropped down to the floor as he tried blocking the wound with his hand.

"Targets aquired sir..." looking up she stared the Octotrooper and Octobomber in disbelief that were standing in front of the door. The Octotrooper having been the one speaking into a mic in its scooter lowered it as it looked at them with a smirk, "the Inkling was right...they came after the prisoners after all."

"So it's true...Jasper tricked us all..." Squil groaned.

"Shut up Inkling!" the Octobomber yelled as its partner aimed at him, "one more word and you'll be nothing more than a blue ink stain!"

Something seemed to snap in her as Molly suddenly went from shocked to angry in a matter of seconds. She growled, her eyes faintly glowing as well, "you hurt him..."

It quickly shifted it's ink weapon towards her, "the same warning goes to you too!"

She slowly stood up, smirking a little, "You really think that will stop me? Pathetic..."

"Molly...?" Squil tried standing up but was struggling with it, "N-no...not again! Molly don't give in to it!"

"Too late..." her eyes flashed bright and continued to glow as she started moving towards the two Octarians, "You hurt my mate...bad move on your part..."

"Molly! Please no!"

"You should listen to your mate Inkling!" the Octotrooper cried out, fear started to show in its voice as it tried to stand its ground, "we wouldn't want to hurt a pretty young girl without reason!"

"You're making a big mistake if you think I need protection..." her tentacles suddenly shifted in color from orange to purple as she spun her staff in her hands.

"What the Kel-!" the Octotrooper was suddenly a puddle as Molly pulled her staff back from where the Octarian had been a second before.

"Holy carp!" the Octobomber started floating backwards only to have Molly suddenly behind it with her staff at his throat.

"Molly stop this!" Squil yelled having managed to grab the edge of one of the desks.

"You'll all pay for this!" her voice rose to a shriek as with a quick jerked she snapped the neck of the Octobomber and he turned into a puddle as well, "Jasper especially will pay..."

"Molly!" gritting his teeth he pulled himself up, "Molly you must wake up!"

"But I'm not asleep!" she insisted, clearly irritated.

"Molly...it's time to wake up..." he reached up and grabbed her shoulders as she looked her straight in the eye, "Molly please..."

She glared back at him for several seconds until a look of confusion came onto her face. Blinking at him several times her look of confusion grew as the color on her tentacles faded back to orange and her eyes returned to normal, "S-Squil...?" her knees buckled as she tried falling to the ground.

"Molly!" he tried keeping her up as he nearly fell himself, "I'm not strong enough to keep us both up..."

"S-sorry..." she mumbled as she fought back exhaustion, "I'm just really tired..."

"Molly, we have to move before more Octarians find us. We need to rendezvous with the others," he was down on his knees and gasping in pain.

The smell of his blood suddenly snapped her back into reality as she pulled herself off him, "right...come on Squil," using her staff as a cane she wrapped her arm around his shoulders as the pair stumbled out of the room and down the hall.

They made it through several passage ways before walking into a T-section they found a group of Octarians coming at them.

"No!" shifting her staff into its brush form she swiped it at them and immediately took out several of them as the others started shooting.

Gritting her teeth she felt her chest burn as the sting of the ink became less painful. Rushing forward she swung again and took out the rest of the group, gasping for air she leaned against her brush as she looked through her now maroon and short tentacles.

"Molly...you need to stop," Squil stumbled towards her as he held his side, "you've used your abilities a lot already and if you don't stop you'll probably black out like what happened when we were 15."

"I have to Squil..." she moaned as she struggled to find the strength to look up at him, "I have to protect you...you and the others..."

"But-" he froze as the sound of wheels started to come from the hallway behind them, "they found us, there's no way we'll make it to the others..."

Looking up she stared down the hallway where they had been going before turning to face the way the Octarians were coming, "you're right Squil...we'll not make it to the others...at least not together..."

He turned to face her in panic, "W-what?!"

"I'm sorry Squil..." reaching into her shirt she pulled the silver chain off from around her neck and placed it into his clean hand as he continued to stare at her in disbelief, "I'm gonna want that back...make sure it stays safe."

"Molly, don't do this!" he reached to grab her arm only to have her pull back.

"If I don't make it...give it to our first born..." she picked up her staff and started running towards where the Octarians were. The sound of Squil screaming at her almost drowning out the sound of them until she ran around the corner and nearly ran right into an Octotrooper.

The Octotrooper started to swear loudly as she whacked him out of the way before running through the confused group and back towards the control room.

Turning around another corner she skidded to a halt at the sight of a Octostriker with several Octobombers. The Octostriker turned to her with a glare, "Another stray one? How many of these Octolings did those stupid Inklings let out?!"

She turned around to run back the way she came only to find the Octotrooper she had smacked right behind her with the rest of his group.

"About time you idiots showed up...grab her!"

Before she knew it they had wrestled her to the ground as she felt herself lose her grip on her brush. Raising her head quickly she felt it hit something solid as a yelp of pain rang in her ears.

"She's an awful feisty one..." she heard one cry out.

"Too feisty...someone knock her out before she gets free!"

She suddenly felt a numbing pain on the back of her head as her felt the cold floor against her cheek before blacking out.


	38. Under Lock and Key

_Author's Notes: After over a year of writing on my tablet all the chapters of SOTI thus far and the beginning chapters of LOTI I finally got my laptop up and running so I can write normally again, woohoo!_

 _Also due to how close we are to completion I'm currently working on getting my final reference notes together for the final chapters so more than likely Legends is gonna get several updates before the next chapter of this comes out which may or may not happen before I go back to college. Sorry...I just want to get it all gathered so writing the last chapters will go faster and you guys won't have to wait as long between updates for the last few chapters._

 _Anyway reviews are always appreciated and enjoy._

 **Chapter 38 Under Lock and Key**

"Hey? Are you awake yet?" a soft voice was the first thing Molly recalled as she came to.

"If she wasn't why would she respond?!" a second voice yelled a second later, making her wince. Slowly she opened her eyes to find herself staring at a stone ceiling with weak, flickering lights hanging from it as she heard footsteps move away from her.

"You don't have to yell at me..." the softer voice responded, clearly hurt by the words of the other.

There was a snort of derision in response, "Then stop acting like a blobbie Kara...she's just another poor soul who got captured by the Octarians."

Gritting her teeth Molly forced herself to sit up. Her eyes then grew wide as she realized who the two people were.

"I'm not a blobbie Rylee," a young Octoling around molly's own age quickly responded as tears threatened to escape from the corners of her eyes, "And what if she's with the Inklings?"

"There's no Inklings that are coming to rescue us Kara!" the other Octoling, much older in age, sharply told her as she glared at her through the cell bars before her eyes caught sight of Molly, "hm..looks like your new cellmate is awake after all."

The younger Octoling turned around with a soft gasp, "I'm sorry! We must have woken you up."

"Nah, you didn't wake me u-ah!" sitting up fully she gasped as pain arced across her back.

"You okay?!"

"Y-yes…." wincing she touched her back only to nearly yelp again, "I guess I got more beat up then I thought..."

"Yeah, heard it took a pretty good sized Octarian patrol to take you down," she walked over and sat down next to her, "I must ask...are you one of the Elites?"

"An Elite?" she reached up to touch her tentacle as realized they were short and maroon instead of their normal length and orange, "oh...n-no, I'm just a simple soldier..." she frowned as she curled her legs up to her chest as she tried to ignore the pain in her back, "...or was anyway..."

"Oh…" the younger Octoling dropped her gaze for a moment before looking up at her again, "I guess we haven't proper introduced ourselves. My name is Kara and that's Rylee," she pointed towards the other Octoling who rolled her eyes at Kara before walking away to her cot in her cell, "...what's yours...?"

"Molly," she looked at her with a wry smile, "Molly Colorian..."

"Ah..." she blushed a little as she rubbed the back of her head, "sorry but neither of us see much of the other prisoners except when sent to work. This wing of the prison is more or less where they stick the overflow...so there's not many of us here."

"Ah..." getting up slowly Molly walked over to the bars of the front of the cell to stare down the hallway, "this is gonna be tricky to get out of here…." she placed her hand on the bars.

Pain immediately shot up her arm. Yelling she pulled it back as she rubbed it while it continued to tingle for several minutes.

"You okay Molly?" Kara stood up quickly.

"Yeah...I didn't realize the bars were electrified..." she continued to rub her arm while grimacing.

"Of course….they are made so we can't slip through the bars while in octopus form," she paused, "...you didn't know that?"

"Err...no," she lowered her arm to her side.

"How did you not...everyone at the prison knows this."

Before she could answer there was a loud crash as a door slammed against a wall down the hallway followed by the sound of the flapping of Octobomber wings and rapid footsteps, them growing louder as they got closer until they were right behind Molly where they stopped.

Turning around Molly found a glaring Octotrooper with a distinct dark mark around his lone eye, "You must be the one I hit with my brush…" she stated flatly, "I hope it hurt a lot."

She screamed as she was suddenly yanked up against the bars by a claw-like contraction in the Octotrooper's tentacle. The bars faintly buzzing as she continued to be pressed against it for a minute.

"Consider that your first punishment...one of many you're bound to get if you refuse to obey Octoling," he stated flatly as he allowed her to crumple to the floor with a whimper, "the three of you will be retrieved for work in an hour," folding up the object he walked away with the Octobomber following him.

Kara knelt next to her, "Are you alright…?"

"Yes..." gasping a little she looked up at the sound of a snort from Rylee who had sat up to watch them.

"For the record if you were thinking about escaping, give up. There's no way out of this place...except through Death..." turning away Rylee went back to laying on her cot.

* * *

"Keep moving Octolings!" Molly winced as she felt a ink weapon muzzle get jabbed into her back as she stumbled forward. Looking around she saw some of the other Octolings stare at her with worried expressions as she passed before she was shoved forward down a tunnel.

They eventually shoved her down next to some other Octolings that were digging a wall with pickaxes, "Dig here Octoling!" the Octotrooper pointed to a wall as another one shoved a pickaxe roughly into her hands.

She stared at him, "And if I don't…?"

He turned to his partner who immediately aimed his weapon at her. From what she had heard instead of pure Octarian ink the weapons shot ink diluted with water which would burn the Octoling's skin when touched, "You sure you wanna ask that question?"

Biting her lip she turned away from him to start working.

As she worked one of the male Octolings eventually leaned over to her, "Are you an Elite?" he whispered.

She turned to face him "No...why does everyone keep asking me that?"

The Octoling blushed, "S-sorry...you just seem to have training...you seem more fit then most of the rest of us."

"It's alright...I have some training actually..."

His eyes lit up, "So you are a soldier than?"

"Er, not exactly..." she knew her story was falling apart as she continued to talk to him. Biting her lip again she tried to turn away, "I'm sorry but it's kinda complicated..."

"What do you mean b-" he yelped as one of the Octotrooper hit him in the back, whimpering he fell to his knees.

"Get up Octoling!" it yelled at him as he slowly started to get back up. Just as he got halfway up the Octarian hit him again, "move faster Octoling!"

"Let him get up!" one of the other Octolings cried out only to earn a glare from the Octarian.

"Shut up! It's none of your business!" he yelled which made her and several others wince in fright.

Molly could feel her irritation rise as she watched.

"Please...he's tired..." the female Octoling pleaded. Based on her actions Molly came to the conclusion that the boy must have been related to her in some way.

"Get back to work!" walking towards her he smacked her across her face. Yelping she stumbled backwards form him as he gave her a smirk.

Molly stood up, making several other Octolings stop and watch her, "Leave them alone!" gritting her fangs she hissed at the Octarian.

He turned to her, "Get back to work Octoling. This is none of your business either."

"I said leave him alone," she watched as several Octolings backed away from her and the Octotrooper as she felt a hint of warmth enter into her chest.

"Or what Octoling….?" the Octotrooper glared at her as the male Octoling finally stumbled back onto his feet and ran into the arms of the female Octoling that had tried to defend him, "you really think you can just take me out?"

"No..." charging at him she shoved him up against the wall as the Octolings around them shouted with a mix of surprise and fear, "I could take you and dozens more just like I've done in the past!"

"What's going on!" turning her head Molly saw several Octotroopers rushing towards her, "let him go Octoling!"

She hissed under her breath in frustration as she kept holding the Octarian up until she heard one of them cock their ink weapon. She knew the water wouldn't hurt her by itself but combined with Octarian ink she wasn't so sure.

Slowly she lowered the Octarian back to the ground as some of the other guards rushed towards her and pinned her down, "get her back to her cell!" the one she had attacked was rubbing where she had held him, "someone else inform Death, he demanded all disturbances be reported immediately to him."

"Death? He's here?!" Molly tried pulling her arms out of the guards grip but they simply twisted her arms, making her cry out in pain.

"Yes as a matter of fact he is..."

Her eyes widened, "No..."

The Octarian grinned as the look of panic on her face grew, "I'm sure he'd love to meet you Octoling...he hasn't had a new toy to play with in while..."

"You're a monster!" Molly shouted, fighting the Octarians as they dragged her off, "You all are!"

"Not like I haven't heard that before..." the Octarian sneered as she disappeared around the corner and out of the tunnel.

The guard slammed the door opened as they dragged her down the hallway to her cell. As they walked up to it Kara looked up at them. With a scared expression she hastily placed something into a pillowcase under her cot.

Looking quickly up at the guard to see if he had noticed her panic he simply glared at Molly in return as he shoved her into the cell before he and the other guard walked away.

"W-what happened?" Kara asked as she stood up.

"I attacked a guard..."

"You what?!"

"He was hurting an Octoling..." she looked down at her hands before groaning in disgust at herself, "I don't like bullies..."

"None of us do, but what can we do? They overpower us ten to one."

She bit her lip, "What about the Inklings?"

Kara looked at her confused, "What do you mean 'what about the Inklings'?"

"What if they helped?"

"...why would they help us?"

"Because we want to help you.'

"We?" Kara shook her head in confusion, "wait...why did you say that?"

"I-I..." she stood there in fear for several seconds as she tried to think of an explanation.

"You...are with the Inklings…?"

Molly sighed in defeat as she gave her a wry smile, "Actually I am an Inkling..."

"You are!?" she took a step back as her gaze flicked towards her cot for a second, "but how?"

"I have the ability to change my appearance so I look like other beings," she took a step towards her only to have Kara take a step back, "I'm not here to hurt you..."

"How can I be so certain you're telling the truth…?"

"Please Kara, you have to believe me. I came with others to rescue some of the Octolings imprisoned here,"

"I-if that was the case then why didn't we here about it?"

"The Octarians probably didn't want to give you false hope so they kept it quiet..." coming towards her she took her hands, causing her gasp in surprise, "we successfully freed some of the Octolings but during it I got captured in the process..."

"So...someone really is trying to free us?"

"We certainly are trying..." turning to look at the next cell over she frowned as she saw that Rylee was missing, "where is she?"

"They took her a few hours ago…one of the guards said something about her working too slow because of her age," tears threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes, "I think they may have taken her to Death...and I'm afraid I might be next."

"I won't let that happen Kara," she winced as Kara started squeezing her hands in panic.

"I-I don't wanna die Molly...my babies have lost their dad already I don't want them to become orphans."

"B-babies?"

Kara bit her lip as her gaze immediately dropped to the floor.

"Kara...you are a mother?" she looked her up and down as she quickly sniffed and realized there was a tangy scent around her. About a day after Molly had laid the two eggs Squil had mentioned that she had started to smell slightly different. Sniffing again she finally realized what he meant.

"Yes..." she finally dared to look at her again as her eyes shined bright with fear, "...I have eggs,"

"Can I see..?"

Silently she knelt next to her cot and gabbed the pillow case she had hidden under it as the guards had come with Molly. Opening the top Molly gasped as she saw three maroon colored eggs glint in the dim light, "I had to feign a stomach ache in order to get away from work so I could lay them...it wasn't easy..."

"Kara they are so beautiful..." she knelt down next to her, "can I see them more closely?"

"Sure..." she seemed to tense up a little but she didn't stop her as Molly lightly placed her hands on one of them.

"They seem pretty healthy," as Molly continued to touch them she felt a faint numbness come into her fingertips. Puzzled she took her hand away she rubbed her fingers together. Looking at them she gasped as she realized they were slightly irritated, "oh no...I'm starting to regain sensitivity to Octarian ink..."

"Regain sensitivity? What do you mean by that Molly?"

"It means I'm rusty...I haven't had to shapeshift in over a year...until this mission," she sighed as she dropped her hand back to her side, "I'm not going to be able to maintain this form for long...my Inkling traits are starting to appear again."

"But if you change back and they see you they'll think you're a spy..."

"Or worse…" she stood back up as she walked over to the cell's bars, being careful not to touch them this time as she looked out through them down the hallway, towards the door, "sadly I don't have much time either way...one of the Octarians was sent to report my behavior to Death. I'm sure in an hour or two they'll send the guards to come get me."

"Then they'll certainly find out what you are then..." pushing the pillowcase back under the cot she stood up as well, "what are you going to do?"

"If I could contact my team I could tell them I'm okay...as well as the fact that Death is here at the prison..."

"How do you plan on doing that...?"

"I don't know...unless..." As Molly stood there a thought occurred to her making her eyes flash briefly, "Kara, the prison has a way to communicate with places in the other domes right?"

"Yes they do...they use a satellite communication system as far as I'm aware...why do you ask?"

"I know this will sound crazy but I may need you to help me with something..."

* * *

"Oh my cod I was worried someone wouldn't come in time! Please hurry, I think she's sick!" Molly yelled in a fit of panic as the guards rushed over to her cell. Kara laid on her side on the floor while softly moaning as they came up.

"What the…? How long as she been like this?!" the guard held his tentacle out in front of his face with a look of disgust and horror.

"She collapsed about twenty minutes ago…please help her..." Molly sniffled a little as she tried shaking Kara awake only to have her moan louder as she clutched her stomach, "I-I think she might die."

"You grab her while I grab the other one..." he pointed at Molly who looked at them in fear, "Death is interested in her."

"Fine..." walking over to her he put her hands behind her back as he pulled her away from Kara. Willingly she let him drag her out of the cell as the other one hovered over the Kara while she shivered on the floor, "come on! I want to get this over with," the guard grumbled in frustration.

"Well I don't know about you but I don't want to end up with some sort of disease or some-" he gasp as Kara suddenly sat up and jabbed the guard with a sharp piece of metal with orange ink on the tip. Stumbling backwards he cried out in pain as he dissolved into a puddle of Octarian ink.

"What the-?!" looking at Molly the other guard yelped as he saw that Molly's eyes were glowing bright orange, "what are you?"

"I'm complicated," yanking her hands away from him she knocked him off his feet before grabbing the sharp metal piece from the air as Kara tossed it to her. With one quick motion she sliced across the guards tentacle as he tried to stand up. Yelling out he ended up a puddle as well.

"You...okay?" Kara panted a little from exhilaration.

"Yes..." Molly answered in a slightly shaky voice.

"To be honest I can't believe a little bit of your Inkling ink on a broken off piece of the cell bar would take them out."

"Yeah...well neither of our species' bodies are meant to handle foreign ink...even if it's a little it will still cause ink poisoning," she took a step away from the puddle by her feet, "to be honest I didn't think..." she stopped herself as she shuddered at the not too distance memory.

"You didn't think what?" Kara asked as she stared at her with concern.

Molly shook her head, "never mind...we better get going before Death starts to wonder why it's taking the guards so long to bring me."

"Right..." she looked back at the cot where her eggs were still hidden, "do you think…?"

"They should be find for now Kara. I promise we will come back for them but for now we need to move."

"A-alright..." taking one last glance she took the lead in front of Molly, "if I remember correctly there is a communications room not too far from where we are now..."

Passing through the hallways they had to avoid several patrols before suddenly Kara stopped them in front of a door labeled "Communications" in Octarian, "This should be it...you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be probably..." reaching towards the strap of the ink tank she had on her back she readjusted it. On their way there they had found a weapon storage where they found ink tanks as well as some Octoshots. As they had continued to head towards their destination Molly had came to the conclusion that in terms of how it worked as far as she could tell it was very similar to using a Hero Shot.

"Okay..." taking a deep breath Kara pushed the door open and rushed into the room with her Octoshot immediately taking out an Octobomber parked in a chair as it turned around at the sudden noise. A second Octobomber tried ducking behind his chair as he squealed in fright but after tossing a bomb at it the Octarian exploded as well.

"Wow...you're pretty good in terms of shooting..." Molly remarked as Kara immediately started working in front of the one of the desks.

She blushed, "Thank you Molly… you aren't bad yourself."

"How did you learn? Were you a soldier before the war?"

"No...my father taught me back before this whole thing started when I was fourteen..." pausing she sighed softly before turning to face her, "It used to be a lot more simpler back then for us all...even if we were fighting your people instead of each other."

"Sadly I have to agree….being an agent used to be a lot less complicated."

"W-what?! You're an agent?" her eyes grew wide in surprise.

"Yeah..." Molly sighed, "I'm Agent 4 of the Squidbeak Splatoon."

"Agent 4?" she frowned, "But I've heard of Agent 4….

"You have?"

"Yeah...I thought Agent 4 was a guy…?"

Molly's blood turned ice cold, "O-oh yeah..."

"'Oh yeah?' What do you mean by that?!"

She swallowed, "I forgot..."

"Forgot what?"

"That he was Agent 4 too...

"Wait...there is two people that are Agent 4?!"

"Y-yes..."

Kara's frown deepened as she stared at her, "Molly you aren't making sense..."

Molly turned brilliant red as she stood there, "It's a long story Kara...trust me on this you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you..."

Swinging around in the chair she folded her arms, "Try me Molly. I've heard of dozens of weird things from my parents who worked as a guard and scientist at one of the labs; from trying to make super Octarians, to scientists finding an Inkling who could mimic abilities, to even the construction of-"

"Mimic abilities?!" she grabbed the Octoling's shoulders as she stared at Kara in surprise, "What do you mean by that?"

"M-my mother once told me a story about an Inkling t-that tried escaping the lab..." she stammered out, mildly shocked by Molly's sudden change of mood "...apparently when it became cornered it started to attack by electrifying its body and electrocuting the guards that tried coming after it… after several minutes of it fighting though it collapsed on the ground...dead..."

"W-what color was it...? Cyan?"

"No...it wasn't cyan like Inklings and Octolings who have that ability normally-"

"Octolings have abilities too?"

"Yes...but it's a lot rarer than in Inklings except for one ability but even then only usually Octolings with royal family bloodline have it..."

"What ink color was it than if not cyan…?" Molly pressed, "please Kara...I-I need to know..."

"Orange...it was an orange Inkling..."

"No..." a feeling of coldness and horror entered in her chest as she weakly let Kara go who gasped at the sudden release. Stumbling backwards she fell into the other chair in the room as the familiar burning sensation entered her chest and for a moment melted the cold feeling as she allowed her body to shift back to her Inkling form. As the burning feeling subsided though the cold swiftly returned.

"Changeling's are monsters..." pulling her knees up to her chest she stared at the floor as her eyes started becoming blurry, "No wonder we're going extinct...we should..."

"Wait...you are the same kind of Inkling as the one who died all those years ago…?" slowly Kara slid out of her chair to walk over to her.

"Yes..." choking back a sob she finally looked up at her, her eyes faintly glowing, "I wouldn't blame you if you were scared of me now Kara...I've scared plenty of people with my abilities."

"You don't scare me Molly…"she gave her a small smile, "In fact now that you've said that it all makes sense now..."

Molly frowned in confusion with a sniffle, "What does…?"

"Well according to my dad the Inkling was discovered to have certain sequences in its DNA that matched a species that has been extinct since back when our ancestors first came onto land...Mimic Octolings..."

"Mimic Octolings…?"

"Yeah...supposedly they had the ability to take on the appearance of other creatures..." she started to get more and more excited as she continued, "...which means that Inkling, and you, are an example of what remains of an entire Octarian subspecies!" she squeaked happily, "my mom would love to meet you Molly!"

"Kara shhh!" Molly hissed quickly in panic as her eyes flashed bright orange. Turning to see if anyone was coming towards the door, seeing and hearing no one she sighed, "...Kara there's no way I could be part Octarian..."

"Then how else do you explain your shapeshifting capabilities Molly? No other creature I know of had such good transforming skills and it would explain why there are so few of you out there," she sat back down in her seat as she went back to work, "Now why that Inkling was able to do mimicry of abilities I don't know...maybe it has something to do with what squid they are descended from…?"

"I guess it's possible..."

Kara's typing sped up while she scowled a little at the screen in front of her, "Well either way unless we get out of here we'll never figure it out..."

"Right…." frowning Molly watched her for several minutes, "hm, Mimicry...so that's what the second state is called for Changeling…" she muttered under breath as she sat there until Kara's face lit up.

"Got it!" reaching up she snagged a headset from off the wall, "I've got it so that we can contact people on the surface."

"Can it connect to a phones or something?" standing up Molly stood behind her chair while resting her arm on the back of it.

She gave her a look of worry, "Things that are connected to satellite are only what we can contact, so no..."

"No, we were so close…" groaning a little she rested her head on her arm until she winced at hitting something hard, "ow…I forgot I still have my-" her eyes widened as she quickly pulled her sleeve up to reveal a familiar black and orange bracelet, "I still have my communicator!"

Kara jumped, "Geez Molly...I thought we were trying to stay quiet?"

"Sorry...but I think I've solved our problem..." she slipped her communicator off her wrist, "will this work?"

"Possibly..." taking it she grabbed a connection cord and plugged it into the bracelet. While watching the screens again she handed the headset to Molly, "whoever will be on the other will probably be more likely to talk to you than to me."

"Right…" slipping it onto her head she adjusted the mic as static started to enter into her ears for a minute before silence. Quickly she turned to look at Kara, "did it work?"

"M-Molly…?" a shaky voice responded through the speakers of the headset, "I-is that you..?"

She let out a squeak before covering her mouth, "S-Squil?!"

There was a sound like him choking up before he responded, "Oh my cod Molly...it's really you."

"Of course it is dear..." she swallowed as a lump formed in her throat, "how is everyone?"

"Everyone is fine...although Ploosh and Inka are acting kinda weird around one another ever since we got back...or at least as far as I've been able to see since I was knocked out for good part of it-"

"Knocked out?" Molly started gripping the chair tightly, "was it because of…?"

"No, no. I'm fine...Ty healed me from being hit but we ran into some, er….complications on the way out," he quickly cleared his throat which only made Molly even more worried by what he meant by 'complications', "the main thing is we got out with the Octolings and in another day or two the plan was to come and get you and-"

"Yeah, um actually I don't have a day or two to wait for yo guys..." she turned to see Kara get out of the chair and walk towards the door to check the hallway before turning away, "...I sorta ran into some uh….complications myself..."

"What do you mean?" even without being able to see his face she knew he was freaking out.

"I tried blending in with other prisoners but I kinda failed and got noticed...I was to be brought in for questioning when I broke out to get to here."

"Oh cod Molly…."

"Sorry Squil, I wish we could talk more but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they notice I'm out."

"Right of course...we'll leave as soon as we can."

"Thank you..." she looked behind herself to see Kara give her a thumbs up before turning back again, "before I get off there is one more thing I need to tell you...Death is here at the prison."

"What?! He's there?!"

"Yes...he was who I was supposed to be sent to for questioning..."

He groaned, "Oh Molly...how do you get yourself into these messes…?"

Before she could answer she suddenly felt the muzzle of an ink weapon jabbed into her back as the headset was taken off her head. As it was removed she felt someone's breath against her ear, "Hm...that is a very good question of him to ask..."

A shiver ran down her spine at the sound of the voice which almost sounded like two voices speaking at the same time.

"Turn around agent..."

Slowly she turned to find herself staring at a young Inkling boy with a fairly dark skin tone and dark eyes, scars ran up his arms as well as covered his face. Looking at her he gave her a mischievous look like Ploosh used to give her when they were younger but instead of making her smile it made her blood freeze cold, "W-who are you?"

His smile widened, "I'm called Conner but I think you know me better as Death..."


	39. Facing Death and Darkness

_Author's notes: Probably won't hear much from me from now on but I appreciate everyone's patience with me during these roughly two years working on this. In the future I plan on going back and edit some of the uh -cough- more awkward chapters so they flow more nicely with my writing style but for now this story is just about ready to be concluded...for now._

 _Once again I'd like to thank you all for the support and I hope you enjoy the final chapters of Secrets of the Inklings._

 **Chapter 39: Facing Death and Darkness**

"This is seriously getting annoying..." Molly grumbled under her breath as her blurry vision started to clear up enough for her to see she was once again waking up in the same dimly lit room she had woken up in for the last five days. Or at least what she assumed had been five days.

With a heavy sigh and a tug on the metallic cuffs around her wrists she waited for the inevitable meeting with her "interrogator" in what he probably had considered his "interrogation".

A soft click of the door caused her to look up and and frown as her eyes laid themselves upon the 14 old looking boy and his two Octarian guards with an all too mischievous grin that rarely seemed to go away...unless he was angry.

"Well, well...sleep well Agent?"

"Well considering the situation I suppose alright," she replied as she lightly tugged on her cuffs, "But why would you care...you just want information."

What Molly had expected in response was his usual smirk playing across his face before causing his guards to punch her or something to that manner. That's how it had been the last several times he had visit her.

Instead, however, he let a quiet snort escaped his lips as he stared at her, "Why make the assumption Agent?"

Molly's usually look of determination wavered slightly, "what do you mean Death?"

"You see Agent 4..." walking up to her Death leaned right into her face, the stench of rotting flesh filling her nostrils as she fought the urge to gagged, "I have recently discovered something very interesting that admittedly I find very interesting about you...Mollinda Colorian."

Panic ran through her as she felt a familiar warmth deep within herself in response but instead of flaring like a roaring flame it seemed like dying embers in a cold fireplace. Whatever the Octarians had drugged her with to knock her out unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for them, seemed to prevent her ability to activate. Thus making her no more powerful than a regular Inkling.

Gritting her teeth a little she glared at him, "How did you find out?"

"It only took a little bit of digging and blood work on you," he paused for second as he breathed straight into her face as if urging her to cough, "which is why I know for a fact that's not the only thing special about you besides the fact you are related to my enemy..." he leaned away before turning around in a circle to start pacing, "...that being said I must admit I never thought I'd run across a Changeling before I died."

A soft growl suddenly erupted from Molly's throat, "If you think I'm gonna help you-"

Before she could register it one of the Octarians had walked over and punched her in the side, causing her growl to change to a grunt of pain as she fought the urge to scream. While she waited for the black dots to fade from her vision Death continued, "I never expected you to be willing to help me...but that doesn't mean you won't."

With a shake of her head her vision cleared again, "There's nothing you can do that will make me change my mind."

"That's what you think," he stopped pacing and turned to face her directly, "We know you are young and that finding a mate during these parts can be difficult..."

"Not in a million years would I do that for you!" she shouted as she bared her fangs at him, "I'd rather die than become breeding stock for your twisted plans!"

"You have no idea how tempting it is to go through on your proposition...but considering that up until discovering your existence only one recorded Changeling was known and has long since been captured by the humans making the chance of finding another slim, so no...I won't kill you...yet," the grin on his face widened slightly, "however that doesn't mean I can't hurt your friends Colorian, which if I have to, I will."

She glared at him in silence for a minute, her eyes burning as bright as embers while doing so, "I will never give you what you want Death no matter what you say, do or threaten me with," Molly eventually replied through another growl.

He continued to smirk at her, "Will you say the same thing in say...two weeks? Six months? A year?" he held his hands out in a shrug before dropping them back to his sides, "the nice thing about being immortal is you have all the time in the world to wait."

She didn't answered him as she continued to glare at him before he let out a sigh, shaking his head at the same time, "I'll let you take some time to think about it but I will tell you that any effort to refuse me will be ill advised...after all Opalescent squid have that strange thing with hormones and egg formation."

"W-what?! What do mean?!" she shouted as she watched him and his two guards leave the room. Screaming she pulled on the chains as hard as she could as another Octarian, clearly a doctor of some form, came into the room with a syringe in his tentacle, "get back here and explain Death!"

"Now that's enough..." reaching for her neck and getting a grip on it after fighting with her efforts to stop him for several seconds he pulled her tentacles away and slowly inserted the needle into her as he pushed the plunger, "...it's time for you to sleep."

The feeling of the fluid entering her was ice cold in her veins as she felt her movements start to slow down. By the time the sensation had started nearing her chest she had already started to black out and seconds later lost consciousness entirely.

* * *

Molly had woken up three times only to find the same Octarian putting her back out before she could really get her barrings much to her annoyance and she would drift back into the darkness that she had started to used to. It wasn't anything like the shared dreams she and Ty had but for reasons unknown to her every time she came there she found her mind felt more and more awake with each visit.

The observation didn't bother her too much as she decided to use the time to plan while she waited for herself to wake up. The second time she had woken up she had noticed that near the ceiling was a ventilation opening. It was about three feet above her head as far as she could tell but if she could climb onto the chair she was strapped to she knew she could possibly squid jump up to it and slide between the metal slates and find a way out from there.

In theory the plan was fairly doable, however it would require her to stay awake long enough for the drugs to lose their affect. Something she hadn't yet figured out how to get around as she felt herself start to come to for the fourth time.

Opening her eyes slowly she knew something was different as she didn't hear the usual clinking of metal tools on the side table as the Octarian prepared to knock her out. Craning her neck in either direction as she continued to blink away her blurry vision resulted in nothing as she saw that the room aside from herself and the chair appeared empty.

"What's going on...?" her voice cracked a little from lack of use as she sat there in confusion.

After about twenty minutes of waiting for something to happen she sighed in frustration before flexing her hands as she tried to relieve the soreness in her wrists.

As she did so she suddenly felt her left hand slipped past the cuff and out of it, causing her to gasp out as the cuff fell to the floor with a loud clang.

She laid completely frozen as she watched the door in front of her for at least a solid minute before she dared move again. Looking down at the cuff and then at her hand she rubbed her fingers together before staring down at her other hand, "Could I...?" biting her lip in concentration she stared at her right hand.

After a minute she watched as her hand gained a slight orange hue while the cuff tried to slip farther down her arm before turning her arm the other direction and slipping the cuff past her hand and right into her other cupped hand.

"Ho-you know what, never mind..." Placing the cuff onto the chair's armrest she leaned forwards to start freeing her feet, "I gotta get out of here before Death decides to-"

"Sir you can't just keep increasing the dosage...it will kill her."

Molly froze as she looked up at the door again but instead of feeling panic she felt anger flaring up inside her as she couldn't help but let out a growl while the voices continued to get closer.

"Octoling last I checked you weren't a doctor," the second voiced pointed out, one that she knew to be Death's voice, "and don't you dare forget why I asked you here!"

"Of course Death..." the first voice sounded hesitant but still continued after a minute, "but I do agree it is becoming apparent she's gaining a resistance to the drug."

"Octoling I don't need you repeating something I already know..." Death started to say as he opened the door.

Looking up again Molly held the last chain in her hand as she watched Death stare at her in confusion for a solid minute before turning red, "...How the kelp did you get out?!"

"Word of advice Death...don't make the assumption leaving a prisoner alone on their own will ever be okay," she twirled the end of the chain in the air once before catching it between her hands.

"GET HER!" he nearly screamed as the two Octarian guards rushed forward.

Moving to the side she dodged the first guard who run into the chair with a thud and groan before passing out. The second was more careful as he tried out maneuvering her in order get find an opening. Before he could find one she looped the chain in her hands, forming a sort of lasso before starting to twirl it in her hands, "Come on Octarian, we haven't got all day."

With a shout he charged her only to gasp in shock as at last second she jumped over his head and looped the chain around his lone head tentacle before letting go of the rest of it which was still attached to the floor. The force itself was enough to send the guard flying backwards and into his other comrade who simply grunted in response to getting squashed by the second one.

"Next time you might want to get some smarter guards," Molly remarked as she shook her head sadly at the two Octarians.

"I'll keep that in mind..." suddenly Molly found herself choking as cold fingers started squeezing her neck hard. Before she could move the hands had slammed her body into a wall as the grip tightened.

"You Colorians have done far too much to foil my plans in the past but today that will be no more. The Colorian line will fall, I will have my revenge and it shall be glorious..." he leaned over, which Molly barely was able to register as she fought the black dots encroaching on the edges of her vision, "...unfortunately this also means I've changed my mind on keeping you alive. A shame but must be done."

"Kelp no..." she vaguely heard before the grip on Molly's neck was removed and air flooded into her lungs with a gasp as she worked on breathing normally again. Turning slowly she found an Octoling hovering over Death's groaning form as they put a octoshot back in its holster on her side, "if there's one thing I've learned it's don't turn your back on your enemies."

"Ka...ra..." Molly finally managed getting her to look up, "for a minute I thought..."

"That I betrayed you when we were escaping? I wouldn't be surprised, I'd probably do the same thing if I were in your shoes," walking over she held her hand out to help Molly up.

Waving it away she slowly stood up as she massaged her throat, "Thank you Kara...I must admit I'm not sure I would have made it out of that alive otherwise."

"You helped me when no one else would..." a mischievous grin slowly crept onto her face, "besides those eggs of yours would probably like to keep their mom."

Molly stared at her as she felt herself tense up, "H-how...?"

"You realize you stink of motherly pheromones right?"

"Oh yeah..." she started turning red as she suddenly remembered how Kara had smelled to her when they were still in their cells.

"Well that explains it. You probably have gotten so used to it you don't realize how strongly it's been clinging to you."

"I guess not," she frowned as she look down on Death's passed out form, "you knocked him out."

"Yes, but not for long. He'll be up soon and you need to be gone before that happens, " she started pushing Molly towards the door which had been left open during to fight, "Many of the guards are actually predisposed right now due to your friends."

"My friends?"

"Yeah. Why do you think he was trying to Kill you? The Archangel has come with his companions and they are making quite a mess around here."

"Ty...and the others are here?"

Kara rolled her eyes, "Please tell me this is the drugs doing the talking. You weren't this slow before..."

"Right..." she shook her head to clear the left over fuzziness of her mind as she placed a hand on the door frame, "Thank you Kara...do you think we will meet again?"

"Something tells me it's a high possibility," as the Octoling stared at her Molly's eyes widened a little as she saw what seemed to be a faint shimmer of purple at the edges of her eyes as she said it before her eyes returned to being fully green, whether Molly had imagined it or not though she wasn't sure, "I could use of someone willing to listen to my stories."

"And I'd be happy to hear them Kara," she nodded her head at her, "until then...good luck."

"Same to you," she heard Kara say as Molly slipped through the door and out into the hallway.

Rushing through the corridors Kara's report on many of the guards being knocked out proved to be coming true as no one stopped her while she ran through hallway after hallway. Occasionally she would find small puddles of Octarian ink as she ran, implying fights taking place but no other signs seemed noticeable to her.

Passing one hallway she felt a cold wind rush out of it, causing her to go back and pause at its entrance. Standing there longer made goosebumps form on her arms before shivering violently.

"What the kelp...?" squinting her eyes as another sharp wind blew across her face she faintly heard something that immediately made her freeze in place as she slightly shook her head in disbelief.

"Squil calm yourself! You're gonna kill us all!"

Immediately Molly ran down the hallway, the wind making her vision blurry as she moved forward but she chose to ignore it as she fought against it.

Turning around a corner she found large snowdrifts gathering up on the sides of the hallway as the wind whipped it up farther into higher drifts with some reaching almost to the ceiling. Walking up to one she placed a hand on the side of one before scooping some of it and feeling it in her hand, "oh my cod...Squil did you do this...?"

A moan from the snow made her shriek and jump back as looking more closely a feeling of dread came to her heart as she saw a single Octarian tentacle moving feebly near the bottom of the pile and grasping at the freezing air with a weak and nearly hopeless effort.

Stepping away she slowly turned in a circle and the horror of the situation grew as one by one she saw more mostly frozen Octarians buried in thousands of feet of snow. Many of the frostbitten parts of Octarians that could be seen poking out of the snow were no longer moving as the wind and falling snow continued to cover them farther like many frozen tombs.

She heard a noise behind her and whipping around she let out a gasp as standing less than ten feet away was Squil. His black leather jacket covering his hero suit and flapping loudly in the wind as he stared at her.

"Squi-" she took a step towards him only to jump back as raising his hand up before swinging it forward he sent inch long daggers straight at her face.

Ducking behind a snowdrift she fought the urge to scream out in terror as she felt the snow shudder behind her from the force of the ice shards hitting it.

After a minute she dared peek her head out only to shriek as another dagger whizzed past her face as she pulled it back. Looking again a second later she saw that Squil had started to move towards her.

"Squil it's me!" She yelled at him as he threw another ice dagger at her, which she barely dodged, "Squil don't you recognize me?!"

As he continued to come towards her she finally had noticed his eyes. Instead of being the normal deep sea blue she had known and grown to love they were now pale blue nearing almost white on the edges. His tentacles had also turned almost completely icy blue and white on the tips with an apparent layer of frost covering his tentacles and clinging to his clothes. Stopping several feet away from her he raised his hand up and a inch thick spear formed in his hand.

"Oh my cod...Squil snap out of it! Your ability is controlling you!"

Whether he had heard her or not he didn't listen as pulling his arm back he threw the spear towards her which ended up buried in another pile as she lunged to the side and out of the way, "Please Squil listen to me, you need to wake yourself up right now because if you don't-" she never was able to finish as he rushed towards her before pinning her up against one of the snowdrifts. Holding her down with one hand he lowered his other hand as another dagger formed in his hand before he shoved it into her side.

She immediately screamed. The pain burned hot like fire before turning cold as ice as he dug the ice blade deeper into her. Looking down for a second she saw black blood flooding up from the wound as he let go and left the frozen weapon in her side. His expression never changing from the same angry scowl plastered upon his face as he glared at her.

"S-Squil..." she gasped as her vision started to become blurry and she could feel the cold spreading toward the rest of her body. Weakly she reached up to his shoulder which made him growl in response as well as made her pause, but only for a moment as she moved forward until she had reached behind his neck and started softly rubbing it, "Please Squil...don't you remember me...?"

His growling increased as he continued to stare at her with the same cold and heartless eyes however after a minute the growling seemed to change pitch as slowly it went from sounding angry to sounding uncertain. Another minute passed as his gaze seemed to start wavering a little before the growling suddenly stopped entirely.

"Come back to me please Squil..." she felt her eyelids start to lower from exhaustion as she rubbed his neck one last time before dropping her arm back down and letting the darkness invade her vision.

* * *

She had no idea how long she had been out as she opened her eyes to find a familiar green eye and eyepatch looking down at her, "I really gotta ask Molly...have you got a death wish?"

"I swear it's not intentional," she told her with a wry smile, "it just kinda happens."

Aizel rolled her eyes at her, "I see you can still make a joke...even though you just took ice knife to the side."

"Guess I'm hard to kill," she let out a laugh only to bite it back when a sharp pain in her side flared up.

"Well you certainly fooled me Molly," Aizel spat out as she forced Molly to lay back down, "I did as much patching you up as I could with your natural healing abilities helping on the side but there's a good chance there might be some internal bleeding or worse. We need to get you to a hospital."

"We can't leave yet...Death is here and I think he's gonna try to kill Ty..."

"Who isn't he trying to kill...most of my people is trapped under him and he will try to suppress anyone who gets in our way and Ty just happens to be number one on his list but being around him for quite some time I know he will beat him yet again."

"N-no you don't understand...Ty can't fight him alone. He tried to kill me and would have done so if I hadn't gotten help."

She frowned, "You got help? From who?"

"It doesn't matter," she quickly insisted, making Aizel's frown deepen, "what does is he's too powerful...even if Ty beats him down Death will always come back and possibly in a more powerful form."

"Than how do we beat him Molly? If stabbing him, squashing him, burning him, freezing him and numerous other things have been tried what else can we try? It's not like we can poison him!"

"Poison...?" Sitting up again with some effort she stared off at nothing in particular, "what if we could...?"

"Molly I was joking," Aizel told her, panic for the first time entering her lone eye as she stared at her, "there is no way we could get close enough to do so. He'd see what we are doing from a mile."

"Not we...me," she looked up at her again with a look of determination, "I gotta find Ty, where is he?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. We got separated before me and Squil ended up being attacked by the squadron here and then well..." she waved a hand at the slush piles that were all that were remained of the indoor snowstorm. Many purple puddles were combining with the melting ice, "as you found out the results wasn't pretty."

A touch of green entered her face before Molly shook her head, "Wait...where's Squil?"

"Out cold...pun not intended," shifting to the side Aizel revealed the still form of Squil laying on the ground. From her angle Molly could see his tentacles were their normal blue color again, "after he snapped out and freed me from a snow pile he demanded that I knocked out."

"Oh Squil..." moving carefully with some silent protest from Aizel she stood up and slowly walked over to him before kneeling down next to him as she stroked his forehead, "You probably felt so much guilt...but I don't blame you...it's like mimicry; it can be so hard to control."

"Mimicry," she looked up to see Aizel's expression become a mix of confusion and scrutiny, "what the kelp is mimicry?"

Molly gave her a wry smile, "There's been several times where I seemed to go crazy...that was due to mimicry. It's the second form of Changeling."

The one eyed Octoling's lone eye suddenly grew wide, "So that's why...?"

"Y-yeah..." looking back at Squil before leaning down to kiss him before standing back up, "can you make sure he's okay until he wakes up?"

She nodded, albeit with some clear concern, "but what are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna find Ty," she went over and hugged her, which stiffened for a second before relaxing, "stay safe Aizel."

"You stay safe as well Mollinda," she whispered into Molly's ear before pulling away and letting go and kneeling down to tend to Squil, "I still don't get why you Inklings are so reckless."

"It's in our blood Aizel," she smiled before turning and heading down the hallway and out of their sight.

Traveling through the corridors was slow for her at first due to the continuous waves of pain down her side but after walking for over a half hour the pain started to dull down and she was able to move at a slow trot. Even then she couldn't help but notice a deep throbbing pain closer to her center and back that never seemed to dull or fade away in any shape or form as she traveled. What it exactly meant she wasn't certain but she didn't dare let it distract her as she looked down every passageway she passed only to becoming increasingly panicked, "I'm running out of time..." she muttered under her breath as she looked down the umpteenth hallway to see it was a dead end, "If only there was some way of indicating..."

Before she could finish her thought a shot of pain ran through her shoulder, sending her onto her knees as she clutched at it. Gasping for breath she laid there on the ground for several seconds before the pain vanished as quickly as it had come. Looking down at herself she could find no visible reason for the pain but a feeling of dread soon replaced it.

"Oh cod...please no..." getting up she started moving forward, "please don't be what I'm afraid of..." her walking soon turned into an all out run as she ran towards a set of doors with the word "exit" written in Toyakese over them. Holding out her arms forward as she ran she shoved the doors open as she stumbled out into the open before landing on the hard dark earth. Small sharp rocks cutting up her face as she skidded several inches before stopping.

Pushing herself up slowly she lifted her head up as a faint wisp of wind past her face and bringing to her a smell that made her very body turn cold.

"Blood..." picking herself she continued to sniff the air as the smell got stronger as she moved forward. Reaching almost to a point where the taste of copper started form in her mouth, making her nearly gag while she walked.

The smell got to her so much she nearly crashed into someone as she stumbled around a large stack of crates, causing the person to shriek in shock as Molly started to fall forward. Her eyes already threatening to close as she prepared to feel the ground against her face.

Her expectation proved to be premature as she felt herself being held up before hitting the dirt, "Oh my cod...Molly?!"

Forcing her eyes to stay open she lifted her head to find a pair of purple eyes staring back, "Hey Inka...it's been a bit..."

"A bit...?" She let out a snort of disbelief, "you've been in there for nearly two weeks."

Molly shrugged, "There was some...complications."

"That's what you call it? Complications?"

She shrugged again, "more or less."

"So Changeling you decided to die after all?"

Using Inka's arms as support she looked past her shoulder at Death. His form seemed unstable as it blurred a little at the edges but he still looked at her with the same mischievous grin he had flashed her ever since she had first laid eyes on him. Behind him she could see the source of the blood being Ty who was slowly pulling himself up, black blood on his shoulder as he started to stand up with some obvious pain. The others; Ploosh, Rex, Coral, and Vybe were standing around the edge of the area in various levels or concern and panic as they watched.

"When you escaped I figured I would have to find you later so that I can finish you off-" Death started to say.

"No Death, I didn't come to die...I came here to kill you," Molly told him, cutting him off. Letting go of Inka she started walking towards him. Her pain and tiredness becoming forgotten as anger filled her.

"Molly...stay back," Ty told her as he finally pulled himself back onto his feet completely, "he's gotten stronger..."

"I know...but if there's one thing I've learned since I first found who I was it's this;" picking up a metal pipe that had been leaning against a crate she started to wield it like a staff while she narrowed her gaze, "we Inklings, especially us Colorians, can prove to be rather persistent...and stubborn," she let a small smile creep onto her face as she pointed the staff at Death.

"Than I'll just have to kill you both," the shade-like boy remarked as he lunged towards her. His fingers suddenly turned into sharp dark talons as he reached out for her.

Before he could reach her Ty lashed out with his hidden ink needles, hitting him in the side. In response he immediately turned around which give Molly an opportunity to strike him with the pipe on the his other side and forming a huge gash that instead of releasing blood had in a matter of seconds healed up and formed into a scar to go with the many other scars that was on his body. Before he could turn back and swipe at her she leaped back, her adrenaline the only thing keeping her from actually getting hit as she kept bouncing from foot to foot after landing while holding the pipe between her hands.

The fight soon turned into some form of strange dance as Molly and Ty either dodged Death's attacks or quickly moved in to strike out at him as he growled in increasing frustration before swinging his taloned hands at them only to miss. Molly knew the fight wouldn't last long though as she felt both the pain in her side and as well as the deeper, more energy draining of the two, pain somewhere near her chest and back area start to increase as the fatigue in her body started to make her movements slower.

Death must have noticed this as after a brief lapse in his attack he rushed up to her with a snarl as he did several quick swipes at her chest.

She jumped back away from each but as she moved back from the last swing her left foot landed on top of a small rock that shifted under her and caused her to fall backwards onto her back as the pipe slipped out of her grasp.

"Molly!" She heard Ty yell as she tried to get up only to have Death pinning her to the ground as he looked down at her with a gleeful expression. One of his hands on her chest as he kept his hand poised and aimed at her throat.

"You're finished Changeling," he started laughing as he watched the terror entering her eyes, "what's the matter? To scared to scream?"

Before she could answer he howled out in pain as two sharp needles started to protruded from his chest. Twisting his head around he looked at Ty, glaring at him while he watched Ty plunged his ink needles farther into him, pure fury filling his deep blue eyes as he did so.

"You will not touch a tentacle on her," Ty told him, his voice dripping with anger, "if you do you will pay."

Death smiled at him before laughing again, "Archangel I think you should be more concerned with your own welfare rather than others. After all...you were who I planned to kill," he told him as he suddenly pulled himself off Ty needles.

Ty was only able to take one step back as he looked at him in surprise before Death had fully turned around. Without another word Death's grin grew wider as he lunged forward and plunged his black talons straight into Ty's stomach.

Molly knew she had screamed as she watched the life drain out of Ty's eyes but it had been quickly drowned out by Vybe's own screams as she tried rushing towards Ty only to be stopped by the others. Molly watched for a few seconds as Vybe struggled against their grasp before falling to her knees while her screams turned to sobbing wails as they all watched Death smirk before with a flick of his wrist he dislodged his talons from Ty's body and he fell back lifeless onto the ground.

"Like a fallen angel the Archangel falls as well..." Death remarked as he stared at the body for a minute before turning back to face Molly, "and following his demise is the death of his shapeshifter companion, which will also mark the start of a new Era for Octarians and Inklings alike!"

"I refuse to die as a martyr Death!" She told him as she spat some venom straight into his face.

He recoiled from her as he reached up to his face with his hands and started to scream in pain. As soon as his vision had become impaired she scrambled across the ground away from him, reaching out for the pipe that she had lost.

"Foolish girl!" just as she had wrapped her fingers around the pipe she felt herself getting yanked backwards and soon had Death's face in her own. His breath making it hard to breath as he snarled at her, "did you really think you can get away from me Changeling?!"

Instead of answering she shoved the metal pipe right into his chest and through where his hearts should have been as it traveled through and out his back, causing him to yell out in pain. The force from it going through him made her lose her grip and the end she had been holding buried itself into the ground next to her as she watched Death groan out in pain before returning his gaze back to hers.

"Haven't we already established that doesn't work on me Changeling?" He asked through gritted fangs.

"That wasn't to kill you...that was to keep you from moving," without missing a beat she lunged for his neck and bit down hard.

She felt a gush of fluids enter her mouth that was cold, thick and nothing like blood as she continued to bite him but she didn't dare release her grip as she focused on pumping as much of her venom into the wound while she knew it was still open. To make sure he didn't push her off she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and back as tightly as possible, her nails digging deep into his skin as she did so.

Less than a second into the biting he let out an extremely pained gasp which quickly started to sound more hollow as time passed. Reaching for her arms he tried prying her off him, causing her to wince in pain as his talons dug into the skin on her arms, blood soon pooling up and dripping down her arms from it.

After several minutes had passed his attempts suddenly grew weak before his arms flopped to his side as his breathing started to rattle in his throat. His change of behavior combined with the taste of the strange blood getting to her senses she finally let go as she examined his face.

His face looked strange as the skin started to turn gray and the the scars on his face started to become black. His eyes had also changed and seemed to gain an unnatural sheen over them as he seemed to be staring at something behind her instead of at her directly.

His expression itself contained nothing but fear as he stood there as the effects of the venom continued to visibly spread throughout his body. After a minute his eyes glazed over and rolled up into his head as he fell forward in front of her. The bite wound was surprisingly still open as rotten blood flowed out of it and formed a disgusting sticky black puddle underneath him as with a final ragged gasp he stopped moving.

"Guess you never thought to check if Changelings are venomous..." Molly muttered softly as she watched the body eventually disintegrate into nothing but ink, blood and dust. The dust soon scattering and blowing away in the weak wind that flowed through the domes.


	40. Returning to the Light

**Chapter 40: Returning to the Light**

"Molly!"

She turned around only to have Squil run right into her. She stood there in surprise as she heard him start sobbing, wrapping his arms tight around her.

"Molly I'm sorry. I didn't realize how powerful it would be and I thought I could control it but it controlled me instead and-"

Twisting his head around so it was facing hers she kissed him, causing him to look at her in shock as they stood there before she pulled the kiss apart, "It's not your fault Squil, never is and never will be. There's a reason they are feared because it's like a wild beast that is hard to tame. Is anyone gonna fault you for not being able to tame a creature that refuses to be tamed?" before he could answer she placed her hand on his mouth to stop him from talking as she continued, "the answer is no. No one will blame you and neither will I."

He gave her a look of only mild relief as she took her hand away, "Thank you Molly...but you can't stop someone's guilt from encroaching into their hearts. I hurt you, I could have killed you if I wanted..."

"But you didn't and that's the important thing," reaching up to rub his cheek she kissed him again which after a moment he submitted to it.

"Oh my cod...it can't be," looking up Molly watched as Aizel slowly walked over to Ty's body before dropping to her knees in front of it as Vybe, who had rushed over to his side after Death's body had dissolved, cradled his head in her arms as she slowly stroked his tentacles, "Ty...I never would have thought..."

"What happened?" turning back to Squil Molly saw fear and disbelief cross over his face, "Why is Ty...he isn't...?"

Molly dropped her gaze to his chest, not daring to look at him as she felt her own guilt welling up from her center, threatening to drown her, "I failed...Death is gone but I couldn't stop him from...we came here to this world to keep everyone safe and I failed," tears started streaming down her face, "nobody was supposed die Squil."

"Molly I don't think there was anyth-"

"It's my fault he's dead Squil!" She nearly shouted, causing everyone except Vybe to look over at them, "I messed up and let Death take advantage of me and he was trying to save me."

"Molly what were you just saying to me about...?"

"I had complete control over the situation and I messed it all up and now he's dead!"

"Molly you couldn't hav-" he continued to try to insist only to stop as she glared at him, her eyes glowing bright orange as she started sobbing herself.

"I'm the one who should be dead! Not him, me!" pulling herself away from him she walked away from him and towards Ty before kneeling down next him. Tears flowing freely from her eyes to land on her lap and arms which stung as it hit the claw marks on them but she ignored it.

"He's right..." Molly looked up to see Vybe looking at her, her eyes still red on the edges from her crying, "there is nothing you could do...Death was simply taking advantage of the fact you were weak in order to get to my husband."

"But I should've done something to stop him...instead I just sat there like a frightened squirt."

"He took you off guard...either way there is nothing to do now..." she brushed away one of Ty's side tentacles from his face as she looked at it, "the damage is done...and this time it's not something that can patched up."

"Sadly yes..." looking up Molly watched as kneeling down next to her Squil looked at her for a moment before taking her hands he passed an object from his to hers, "it's not like you can bring back the dead."

Opening her hand she looked down at the familiar inscription on the two pieces of metal before flipping it around to see the name on the back, "I certainly wish there was..."

"T-there is..."

Looking up quickly Molly stared at Vybe as she hesitated, "before we were married I was taken by the Octarians and Ty came for me but...I had taken a lot of stress and pain and it became too much...s-so I had given up by the time Ty had found me. He Refused to give up on me though and so he used Beacon to bring me back."

"Beacon is that powerful?" Squil asked with disbelief.

Vybe nodded, "he passed out though from exhaustion afterwards though...it takes a lot of energy out of the person."

"Is there another Beacon who...?" Squil started to say before Vybe immediately shook her head.

"Sadly no...Ty was the last one. We know Hikari will take his place as the last one when she hatches but without a Beacon now there is no way to bring him back."

"You're certain there is nobody else?"

"Yes...both of us had looked, there is nobody else and there isn't any other way."

Molly simply sat there as she looked down at the tags in her hands for a long moment as her hand started to shake a little, "maybe there is..." she softly mumbled.

"Molly...?" looking up again she saw the others looking at her with concern with Squil reaching for her shoulder, "you okay dear?"

"Yes Squil...I'm okay," she nodded before clenching her hand tightly she reached up and slipped the chain back around her neck with a look of determination, "in fact...I think I finally understand now why I'm here..."

"Here?" Ploosh asked as he cocked his head to the side, "as in here in the dome?"

"As in why we were sent here to help Ty..." she looked straight at Vybe as her voice grew a little shaky, "Vybe c-could you please back up a little...?"

Confused she gently laid Ty's head onto the ground before carefully picking herself off the ground, "Molly...what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to try to bring him back...using Mimicry."

"Absolutely not!" Molly suddenly had Squil pulling her back to her feet and then wrapping his arms tight around her waist as he stared at her sternly, "Molly were you not listening to what Vybe just said!? Reviving someone takes a lot of energy."

She bit her lip, "Let me guess...Aizel explained what Mimicry is?"

"Yes, and a good thing she did. Molly you're not even in a fit enough state to try anyways..." he pointed at the bloody claw marks on her arms as well as the blood soaked bandage wrapped around her side, "And even if you were completely healthy what if you...?" he swallowed hard as he refused to say the last part of the sentence as he hugged her tighter, burying his face into her shoulder, "Molly...I don't want to lose you for good."

"But I can't go on living thinking I could've done something and I didn't..." Molly mumbled out as tears flowed down her own face, "I have to at least try..."

"No you don't...please don't..." she could feel him shudder a little from a silent sob, "please...I don't want you to..."

"Guess it's a good thing I'm a bit on the stubborn side..." kissing him one last time she shifted into a squid to slip out of his arms. As she landed she quickly shifted back as she placed her hands on Ty's chest just when she heard Squil let out a scream.

Her chest immediately flared up into its familiar warmth but only for a few seconds before it suddenly became ten times warmer, almost unbearable to her, as it spread throughout the rest of her body. Turning her head slightly she soon saw her tentacles fade from their usual orange color to at first a pale yellow that soon brightened to a brilliant yellow that softly glowed as tiny particles of light floated up from them to surround both her and Ty.

"Please help me find the strength to do this..." she softly whispered as she willed the overwhelming heat flowing throughout her body to go into her hands and into Ty's body.

The particles soon started to drift down and land on his body as she felt the heat drain down her arms and out of her hands. Leaving behind an almost unnatural coldness behind that unlike Squil's ice blade didn't ebb away her strength from her but instead purposely suck her energy from her body like a straw pulling a drink out of a cup to drain it. Leaving nothing behind but an empty cup.

Five minutes into the process Molly knew she was in trouble as she noticed her vision turning blurry at the edges but she simply pressed her hand harder into Ty's chest while gritting her teeth as the deep pain inside her suddenly increased while she felt a distinct wetness forming on her side. Without looking she knew her wound had opened back up. Her rapid healing capabilities was starting to not be able to keep up.

"Come on Ty...come back to us," she barely was able to say as the loss of her energy was starting to take its toll on her. The encroaching darkness at the edges of her vision was getting worse as she watch some of the specks of light swirl up into the air again into a mini tornado.

As she watched though the tornado started to twist and change into a new shape before seeming to get slightly more solid while the golden specks of light turned black. The shape soon took on the vague form of a humanoid as a familiar chuckle reached her ears, " _Did you honestly think you would keep me from coming back Colorian?_ "

She wasn't able to answer as the form came closer to her and Ty's body, " _Hmm...I must admit the possibility of using my enemy's body as my own never would have crossed my mind before...I ought to thank you for the idea._ "

Molly wanted to scream out at him but could only kneel there as Death floated even closer until he was directly above his body, " _Yesss...I think this body would suit me perfectly and as for you..._ " even if his form didn't have a visible mouth Molly was almost certain he was grinning at her, " _your pathetic stunt will mean one less task for me to worry about,_ " raising it's head laughter filled her ears as she fought the urge to pass out.

The laughter however was cut short when a hole suddenly appeared in the dark form's chest and it's voice turned to one of terror as it started to scream before falling apart as bright light particles engulfed the dark specks and made the dark shape no more.

Instead of dissipating though the new light cloud swirled up and started to condense until a similar humanoid form started to appear before suddenly becoming completely solid. Revealing an Inkling that must have been in his early twenties and had fairly tanned skin as well as bright orange tentacles tied at the nape of his neck instead of near the top like most males did. His eyes were also bright orange in color and seemed to glint with a hint of mischief as he looked down at her.

" _Thanks for flushing him out Molly. We've been trying to catch him for some time and now that we have him he won't be troubling anyone anytime soon._ "

"I-is...it...?" she weakly stuttered out.

" _Yep...it is my little seacake..._ " he smiled at her.

She started to shudder as she struggled to maintain contact with Ty's chest, "how...?"

" _Dimensions don't exactly apply to us...at least not in the same way anymore,_ " kneeling next to her he pointed at the necklace around her neck, " _besides you've always had a bit of me with you this whole time Molly..._ "

"I...missed you daddy..." tears started to fall down her face.

" _I know...I never intended to leave you, your brothers or your mother but it was beyond my power. That being said I couldn't be more proud of you or your brothers. You've brought great pride to the Colorian name and I'm sure you'll bring more in time._ "

"Why does it sound like you're leaving...?" her voice was barely audible as the last bit of her strength started to leave her, the tears falling down faster.

" _It's not your time to come with me...I love you with all my hearts as well as your mother and brothers and one day we will all be reunited but for now it's time to let go Molly._ "

"I don't want to lose you again," she insisted.

" _Molly, let go..._ " his form lost definition as his voice started to fade.

"No dad, come back!"

"Molly let go!"

With a gasp she did. The feeling of her energy being drained away immediately stopped as she lost contact with Ty and the last of the specks of light faded away to nothingness around her.

She sat there for a second before closing her eyes she allowed herself to fall forward onto Ty's chest and lay there. After a minute she felt her body being flipped around so she was facing upwards.

With a great amount of effort she opened her eyes to find bright blue ones staring back at her, "M-Molly?"

"Ty...at least I was able to do one thing right," she sighed as she closed her eyes and succumbed to the darkness.

* * *

Opening her eyes she stared at the darkness in confusion before a feeling of dread came to her as she realized where she was.

It was the dark place she and Ty had shared dreams. But this time she seemed to be alone as she looked around herself to find no sight of Ty.

Her confusion growing she started to walk forward in no particular direction. As she traveled farther onto the dream world she started feel a sense of unease as randomly deep rumbling groans and crackling noises sounded from various areas but the actual sources of such she wasn't able to determine. As she listened more though she couldn't help but feel like it sounded like something was breaking down.

A soft glow soon drew her attention towards a spot on the black surface. Walking over to it she quickly recognized it as the two cracks of light she had seen on previous visits. This time however she couldn't help but notice the cracks seemed to getting smaller as well as were pulling from each other, "What's going on...?"

" _Based on my analysis of the situation it would appear this place is collapsing as the universes start to repair themselves._ "

She turned around and fought the urge to scream as she looked up to find the strange machine, the peace walker, from her previous visit right behind her, "Y-you?!"

" _Correct Mollinda Colorian_ ," it answered but to Molly it somehow sounded slightly tired as it spoke, " _Your observations are quite acute in nature for this instance however my current calculations say that this will probably be the last instance of our meetings._ "

"What do you mean...?" She heard another rumble that caused her to glance behind herself for a second before turning back, "...are you saying after this the dreams will stop?"

" _Correct_ ," it said again.

"But why?"

" _The temporal space bubble is disintegrating...soon it will become too unstable for this kind of communication as the universes finally repair the rifts between themselves._ "

"Repair the rifts?" Her eyes glowed slightly in fear as what the machine meant sunk in, "...you mean not just communication would cease...travel will as well."

There was a long pause before it answered, " _Correct Mollinda Colorian. Once the rifts have been closed travel between universes will be near impossible._ "

"Then if we want to go home..." placing a hand on the machine's metal side she was shocked to find that it didn't seem to produce any source of heat, "we don't have much time left do we...?"

"No...you don't," it shuddered under her touch, causing her to remove her hand which became covered in flaking metal and rust as she pulled away, " _you and your friends must return to your universe...otherwise you must reside in Ty's universe for the rest of your lives._ "

"But...what will happen to you?" rubbing her fingers together as the rust and metal fell off her hand she looked the machine and soon saw other signs of the metal giant falling into disrepair such as holes in the metal and completely rusted over parts that slightly creaked as it shifted around in its position, "will you leave this place as well?"

Another long pause took place that seemed almost twice as long as the last one as she stood there while the rumbling around them seemed to become louder around them, " _...There is some legends better left buried in history, some secrets that you may not want to know and some mysteries that may hurt you just as much as help you if solved Mollinda Colorian...some of this you've started to learn and will grow to understand fully in time._ "

"What do you mean...?" She immediately frowned up at it, "is there something you know that's gonna happen?"

" _My time is up..._ " was the only thing she heard before the ground fell out from under her and she plunged into the dark depths, " _...and soon yours will be as well...choose wisely._ "

"No, wait!" she screamed out as she suddenly felt her face hit something hard in the darkness while her limbs seemed to become entrapped in something.

Her eyes snapped open as she found herself on the floor of her and Squil's apartment, her arms and legs tangled up in the bedsheets as she felt the area on her side burn slightly in pain from her awkward angle, "O-ow...okay that hurts..." moving carefully she started pulling herself free of the blankets.

A sudden squeak though made her freeze as craning her neck she spotted one particular bulge in the sheets clinging to her leg that upon farther observation she realized was moving.

"Wha...?" carefully she moved her leg as she lifted the sheet to reveal a tiny baby orange squid with golden yellow tentacle tips wrapping it's small tentacles around her leg as much as it could while shivering in fright.

"Oh my cod...Luna how long have you been there...?" reaching for the squishy she gently pulled it off her leg as it let out a squeak before rocking it in her arms, "aww, don't worry...mommy's got you sweetie."

The squishy soon quieted down as the rocking caused it to fall asleep. Slowly Molly stood up from the floor as she continued to cradle it, "that's it...go back to sleep sweetie. There is nothing to worry about."

"Is there?" She looked up to find Squil sitting up in bed and looking at her with concern, "I haven't seen you tossing that much in your sleep since before we came here...what was it?"

"Nothing," she quickly answered as walking over to a crib on the other side of the room she gently placed Luna down next to another squishy that was sky blue in color with white tentacle tips, "it was just a bad dream Squil..."

"Really?" he gave her a skeptical look as he folded his arm against his chest. His more grown out goatee and sideburns that he had acquired over the last six months only adding to his look.

"...Yes Squil..." she dropped her gaze for a second before looking at him again, "I'm gonna have to go into town. The doctor is supposed to take my bandages off today."

"Right..." sighing he pulled the sheets off himself, "know how long will you be gone?"

"A few hours probably...hope you don't mind watching Luna and Kish for that long."

"Hardly...but please don't be long. Our son really can be a fussy eater," a slight hint of a smile crossed his lips.

She smiled back at him, "I will feed them before I leave...I promise."

"What about feeding yourself?"

"I'll go fix that right now..." leaning up to his face she kissed him before walking down the hallway towards the kitchen. Her smile turning into a frown as soon as she was out of side of him.

* * *

Molly looked up at the large laboratory complex with some unease before walking in. The guards, recognizing her, let her in without another thought as she traveled through the maze of hallways. Memories of the prison and the fear of the walls suddenly starting to close in on her resurfaced as well as she did so.

She had to push aside though as she ended up in front of the double doors of one of the larger lab spaces for larger projects. Taking a deep breath she pushed the doors open and went inside.

Ty was pouring over some papers at one of the tables, his arm in a sling for his shoulder as he carefully leaned over the table before noticing her coming towards him. Hastily he shuffled papers into a folder before closing it as he looked at her in slight disbelief, "Molly...wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I know...I felt like I needed to though..." walking up to a stool she sat down on it, "we haven't really spoken to each other since I got out of the hospital three months ago."

"You needed time to recover...we all did," he fingered his arm sling absent-mindedly. Even though Mimicry had brought him back like her he had sustained so much injury and blood loss that it had forced him to stay in the hospital for several months until he had recovered enough to leave.

"But time has passed..." reaching up to her side she touched the spot where she knew a large pale scar now resided on her, "and unfortunately not everything can be repaired with time Ty."

He hesitated for a second before answering, "so...it's official huh?"

She dropped her hand back down to her lap, "yes...the doctor confirmed it today. My ink sac will never fully recover from the stabbing...my ability to produce ink has been permanently crippled."

"What are you gonna do? You are a Agent."

She sighed, "Not anymore Ty...I'm done..." standing back up she slipped her communicator from her wrist and held it out to him, "I will no longer be Agent 4. There will only be one Agent 4 in this universe once more."

He pushed her hand back, "keep it...it is partially of your universe still even if it has been upgraded with our technology. Besides what if your children become agents?"

Molly's mouth twisted into a frown, "I'd rather they didn't."

"How come?"

"You know why."

"Molly your daughter is a Changeling and your son is probably special in his own way. They could be great assets to-"

"Yes, I know they are, so was I being a Changeling myself," She barked, making him stop mid-sentence, "but I don't want them to face the dangers I did, no child should have to deal with what I did growing up."

"Whether you like it or not they may end up having to deal with the same problems," he tried to say.

"No they do not! They ought to be able to do whatever they want with their life without worrying about if they will make it back home or return to their families and their-" her voice cracked as she fought back a sob before placing her hand on her mouth to stifle the sound.

Ty stood there in silence, concern crossing his face before he spoke again, "you haven't told them have you...?"

She shook her head rapidly, not even daring to open her mouth.

"It'll only be worse of a blow if you wait..." he leaned back against the table with a heavy sigh, "trust me, I know."

She let out a shaky breath, "Squil will blame himself, I'm sure of it."

"He wasn't in control."

"He plunged the dagger into me...which caused me to become sterile..."

"You're not sterile Molly, you just can't make or carry eggs anymore."

"It's more or less the same thing Ty!" frustrated she slammed the communicator in her hand onto the table, the bracelet snapping in several places with several screws skidding across the table as she felt herself nearing the brink of shifting. Trying to regain control she buried her face in her hands as she sat back down, hidden tears streaming down her face, "I can't let myself lose my family...I don't think my heart could take it."

"I don't want that for you either..." she heard him say.

"I know..." taking a deep breath she took her hands away from her face, "...that's why I came to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Ty...I think it's time we tried to get home."

A wave of emotions crossed over his face as she stared at him before sighing, "I suppose it was only a matter of time...but did something happen to bring this up? I understand the fear about losing your family but you make it sound like there was something else as well."

The words of the peace maker came to her again as she sat there and for a moment she thought about telling him only to stop herself a second later. The words, though cryptic, seemed to be for her and her alone. If Ty was meant to know she was almost certain he would have been there in the dream with her instead of her being alone with it which seemed to prove even more to her that her time with him was becoming short.

"No...I just feel like it's time me and the others should return Ty. We've been away for nearly 8 months...many people from our universe probably think we are dead..."

"Of course..." he avoided her gaze for several minutes, making her wonder if something was bothering him before he spoke again, "I need time to work out some kinks but...I could probably send you guys back in a few weeks."

"Really?"

"Yes...I've been looking into intradimensional travel for a while. From my understanding it only works one way so once you guys leave..."

"Yeah..." she nodded, "I will let Squil and the others know."

"Are you also gonna tell them your condition as well?" his expression turned serious as he looked at her.

She bit her lip hard enough to make her taste blood, "I-I suppose I should..."

"Good..." like a flip of a switch the frown vanished to be replaced by a grin as he reached for the folder again and opened it, spreading the papers out before both of them "now in order to make it more stable an actual physical gate I think is needed...what do you think?" As he looked at her she saw a glint of mischief come into his eyes as he smiled at her.

Unable to resist she immediately smiled back, "makes sense to me Ty."

* * *

"I can't believe this...we are going home...?" Inka clutched Ploosh's arm in a near death grip as she and others watched the strange circular gate hum to life before with blue sparks flying the hum became a mechanical wail and the sparks started to leap across the center of the circle until the whole thing swirled with energy into a cone that came out the back and forming a tunnel inside that seemed to dwindle into nothing upon looking far into it.

"Looks like it..." Squil remarked as Kish let out a surprised squeak at the strange light show. Patting his tiny head to calm the squishy down he turned to Ty, "how long do we have?"

"Ten minutes at best...five at worst before it automatically shuts down," Ty shaded his eyes from the brightness as his side tentacles were slightly tugged towards the gate, "after that I don't know how likely it will be to get it working again."

"I guess that means this is it," Inka turned and give Coral a hug with a giggle, "it was nice meeting you Coral."

"Right back at you Inka," Coral giggled back as both Rex and Ploosh gained uneasy looks as the two pulled away.

"It feels like only a few weeks ago you four came here..." Molly turned to find Vybe standing right behind her, a tiny yellow squishy and cyan squishy laying in her arms, "all of us are gonna miss you but I'm sure it's for the best."

"Yeah..." handing Luna over to Squil she wrapped her arms around Vybe, "I'm pretty sure it's safe to say we will be thinking the same thing when we get home."

A loud gurgling noise made them break their hug as the two squishies squeaked loudly from their new position on Vybe's shoulder. The yellow one holding its tentacles out to Molly.

"Heh...of course I will miss you too...Hikari, Arata."

The squishies squeaked again as Molly rubbed both of their heads before taking Luna back as she walked up to Ty.

"You sure you don't want to stay?" He gave her grin, "I could use of an extra set of eyes and hands."

She smiled back, "A nice offer...but I must pass...we need to go home."

"Of course," his smile faded away as his expression turned serious. An expression she had been seeing on his face a lot lately all throughout the preparations to get the gate up and running and to find a secluded spot to activate it so random passerbys wouldn't accidently find them.

"I've been meaning to ask though...is something bothering you?" she spoke the second part in a whisper as she took a glance at the others who were still saying their goodbyes to each other before looking back at him.

"I could ask the same thing Molly…" he responded, his expression not even changing slightly. He stared straight into her orange eyes with his own sapphire ones, "...is there something you want to tell me?"

"N-no...there isn't," she knew her voice and her eyes implied otherwise as she stood there but she didn't dare try to correct herself as she turned to face the gate as she held Luna more tightly in her arms, "Goodbye Ty...it was nice meeting you."

"Wait…" she felt hands wrap around her arms, forcing her to turn around to look at him and see that his expression had softened to the point of looking sad, "I understand if you don't want to say...but let's not part ways like this…"

"What better way is there? We will never see each other again."

"That's not for certain...we met each other once...we could meet again."

"I suppose..."

"Molly! We need to go!" Looking over the she saw Squil and the others standing next to the gate as the pitch of its whine started to change, "the gate is about to close!"

"Well I believe this is goodbye..." pulling her closer he hugged her, being careful to not squish Luna in the process, "until next we meet...Molly Colorian."

"Same to you if we do...Ty Colorian," she pulled away as tears started forming at the corners of her eyes, "You know you're like the brother I never had?"

"And you're like the sister I never had," he smiled back.

"Molly! Now!"

She turned away and gasped as she saw Squil standing right in front of gate as the other two jumped in. The gate's brightness starting to dim as it lost power, "Time's up Molly, the gate is closing!"

Without a second thought she ran the last few feet and jumped through with Squil a second later as the gate closed behind them.

* * *

"Oh my cod...Octalia get over here! You are gonna want to see this."

Slowly Molly opened her eyes to find herself staring at a something large and dark only a few feet away from her face as she felt grass underneath her head.

"Are you okay Inkling?"

Turning her head slowly she blinked several more times as a young Octoling girl of 16 came into focus. Wearing standard Octoling armor and her goggles resting on top of her head which allowed Molly to see her bright green eyes staring at her in concern.

"Where are we...?" Molly weakly asked.

"W-we are in one of the domes in Octo Valley," the girl explained hesitantly, "My name is Octaria and me and my partner found you and your friends passed out here next to the uh...thing?"

"Thing...?" She turned her head back to the large black object she had seen upon waking up and a quiet gasp caught in her throat as she saw a familiar rusting machine right in front of her gaze. This one in far more disrepair than the last time they had seen it but it still found a way to look daunting as it stood there.

"We're back...?" Molly asked in disbelief.

"Apparently...at least it wasn't as bad as the other direction..." Ploosh muttered as he held his head while Inka slowly got up from laying on top of his lap, a blush forming on her face as she did so.

"I guess that's one thing we have to be thankful for..." Squil was next to Molly as he sat up as well with a groan, "although I'm gonna be honest I don't think I want to do anything like that ever again."

"Do you four-I mean...six need anything?" the young Octoling asked as she noticed the two young squishies in Molly and Squil's arms that had started to awaken as well.

"Can you bring us to Octatia? We need to speak to her."

"But you are...?"

"Tell her Agent 4 wants to speak to her, she will know it is."

"Alright...if you are certain," she stood up before helping Molly up, "the exit is just a few miles from here."

"Thank you," she followed the two Octolings with the others following next to her. As the reached the edge of the clearing she turned to the three with a look of concern, "do you three...?" she quietly whispered.

Instead of answering Squil held out a hand in front of him for a few seconds before tiny snowflakes swirled up from his hands to float off into the air, making Kish squeak in excitement before his father closed his hand.

"Oh goodie...looks like we all brought some souvenirs..." Inka quietly giggled as her eyes shimmered slightly while Ploosh grinned as his own eyes seemed to gain a slightly more yellow quality before fading back to their normal green color.

"Looks like you're all gonna need some lessons in "blending in"," Molly smiled as well before the four all continued to follow the Octarians away from the clearing. A small breeze following in their wake that, to some, might have sounded a lot like someone quietly singing...

" _Sing, sing a song. Sing out loud, sing out strong..."_

 _"...don't worry if it's not good enough...sing, sing a song..."_


	41. A Tale to Tell

**Epilogue: A Tale to Tell**

"So you're telling me you traveled through time and space to another universe like ours...but darker?"

Molly couldn't resist letting out a small snort as she looked up at the red-headed human as she sipped her mint tea, the woman's dark green eyes stared at her in shock as she did so, "I told you it would be difficult to understand...mom."

"Yeah...you did," Lily sighed as she sat down next to her, "well at least you came back in one piece...for the most part..."

"Yes..." Molly dropped her gaze as she pushed back her ginger colored hair from her face. Even with the mild comfort of being in her human form having hair to fight with was not something she missed having as an Inkling, "Squil, Inka and Ploosh needed time to get used to having their abilities but they are now sort of used to it. Inka and Ploosh I don't think have much time to worry about it now that they have their son though."

"And Luna and Kish are doing well?"

"Even though they are only three they still find ways to keep us busy," she smiled, "they are starting to learn how to shift out of their squid forms and they should be able to maintain stable enough forms before school."

"That's great sweetie, I'm so happy for you," Lily reached up and stroked her behind the ear, causing a faint purring noise to rumble in her throat before she stopped, "now I gotta ask...what's wrong?"

Molly's smile lowered into a frown, "why does my visit mean something is wrong?"

"Because I raised you Molly...and I can tell when something is bothering my stepdaughter so instead of us beating around the bush..." she took Molly's cup and placed it next to hers on the table before placing her hands in her lap, "...how about you tell me what's eating you up from the inside?"

Molly dropped her gaze again, "nothing is wrong mom..."

She felt Lily reach over before lifting her chin up and forcing her to look her straight in the eyes, "Please Molly...just tell me."

"Lily...mom...how do I tell someone a secret I've kept from them for so long that it feels like I'm lying to them every time I see them?"

Lily pulled back partially, "this is about your birth mother isn't it?"

"Hatch mother technically speaking...but yes..." she sighed heavily, "I haven't had the heart to tell her anything about you, my life before coming to Inkopolis, or me being an Agent," she clenched her hands in her lap before relaxing them, "I haven't told her...anything...and it makes me feel horrible keeping all these secrets from her but...I don't know what to do."

Suddenly she found herself wrapped in Lily's arms as her back was rubbed slowly. Closing her eyes she succumbed to the embrace while placing her forehead into Lily's shoulder like she did when she was a child as the gentle stroking continued.

"I understand you're scared of how she will react Mollinda..." Lily whispered into her ear, "do you remember how upset you were when I told you that you weren't human?"

"Yes..." looking up she tried to not let her voice tremble as she looked into the dark green eyes again, "but I understand why...you were trying to protect me."

"Yes, but as time passed I eventually realized I would someday have to tell you because there would come a time where it would no longer be safe for me to hide it from you...sometimes though telling may not be the best course of action."

"Are you saying I don't have to tell her?" the feeling of being like a child grew as Molly tilted her head a little while she looked at Lily, puzzled.

"I'm saying you may not have to, its up to you whether you feel it would be right or wrong to tell her."

"Great...I'm back where I started..." she chewed on her lip in frustration.

"Only if you see it that way Molly...think about it at least some before making your final decision..." standing up she took Molly's hands and lifted her up as well, "I will say it was very nice to see you again."

"Same to you mo-" holding her stepmother's hands she couldn't help but notice two very distinct marks on her left arm that looked about an inch or two apart from each other. Based on how pale the scars were she could tell they were at least a year old if not older, "wait...what's that? I don't remember you getting those."

Lily followed her gaze to the arm before pulling her hands away from her as she rubbed a hand over them, "just some old scars from an accident...nothing to worry about dear."

*"They look like an animal bite..." she tried reaching out to touch them only to have Lily pull back, "did you get attacked by something...?"

"I told you sweetie...it's nothing," she insisted as she picked up both their cups, "You should get going...I'm sure Squil and the little ones will want to see you."

"I suppose..." she watched Lily head into the kitchen before coming in several minutes later. Her sleeves pulled farther down and past the scars on her arm as she rubbed her hands together, "before I go...is there anything you need or want?"

"Don't forget about me...that's all I ask for," walking over she gave Molly a hug, "...and maybe seeing those grandkids at some point?"

"You mean "grandsquids"? I will try to bring them over at some point," Molly smiled again as she hugged her back. She took a glance at Lily's arm as she pulled away, "perhaps in a month or two we can have another visit?"

"Yeah...I'd like that, good luck out their sweetie...you're gonna need it."

"Thanks...mother," bowing slightly she walked out of the door, headed down the street and out of the Highlands.

She waited until she was well out of sight of any humans before shifting back into her Inkling form as she pulled out her phone.

"Molly...?" the voice on the other side asked with a slight hint of disbelief.

"What? Your sister can't call you out of the blue because she hasn't heard your voice in forever Kell?" she immediately replied, in a snide manner.

An audible sigh was heard soon after, "I see you still have enough energy to poke fun at me even with kids."

"Nah, I decided to have some "me" time today...Squil has the kids."

"Ah...I wish I could say the same..."

"Still having problems settling in a job?"

"You could say that..." there was a half minute long pause before continuing, "is reminding me I'm single and having trouble keeping a job the only reason you called?"

"No it wasn't..." Molly slowed her walking pace as she looked around herself for a split second before bringing her face back to the phone, "I was wondering...have you seen Marlin lately?"

"Marlin? No, why?"

"When was the last you saw him?"

"Like a week before you guys came back, which by the way are you gonna tell me eventually what happened to you four during that year?"

"I will, I promise."

"You've told me that the last two times I asked."

Molly sighed, "I know...but the next time I really will."

"Yeah, yeah...may I ask why you want Marlin?"

"I just...was wondering if you heard anything from him..."

"No I haven't. I hate to say this but our brother knows how to disappear and disappear well as the two years before you and the other's disappearance proved."

She bit her lip in frustration before answering, "Right...I suppose you have a point..."

"Unless he wants to be found we probably won't hear from him for a bit," she heard a sigh from the other side, "anyways...what are you up to besides wondering where our brother is currently?"

"Well I was gonna see our mom..." she answered, stopping herself from saying "May" at the last second. Even with it being nearing 8 years since she found out that the green Inkling was her real mother she still found it hard sometimes to actually think of her as her mother instead of the human who had raised actually her.

"That's good...I think she would appreciate that."

"Yeah...I'll let you know how it goes if you want?"

"You don't have to, besides sounds like those two kids are gonna keep you too busy to talk to your twin brother," a hint of a chuckle could be heard behind the words, making her smile in response, "so I will just leave you to it."

"Sure...talk to you later Kell," she lowered the phone from her face as she looked up to see the familiar group of buildings looming up on the slight hill as she made her way back into Inkopolis.

It only took her about an hour to get to the apartment. Knocking on the door it took all her effort though not to run away as she saw the door slowly pulled open as May peered out from behind it.

"Molly...?" her green eyes widened slightly in surprise as she looked at her, "what are you doing here?"

"Mom...there is something I feel I ought to tell you."

"Yes?" she opened the door fully as she stood in the doorway with a look of concern.

"Actually it's several things...and they are somewhat complicated."

"Does it involve more unexpected grandsquids?"

"Wha-no mother it's n-not that!" She quickly insisted before seeing a smile cross the older Inkling's face.

"Oh Molly...I'm just teasing you. I figured it wasn't that," she started to lean against the door frame, "but I'm assuming it's something you want to get off your chest?"

She looked at May carefully for a minute. The older Inkling, appearance wise, was the same as when they had set eyes on each other after she had recently arrived in Inkopolis. Looking at her more closely though Molly could see subtle differences in the way she moved and stood that was nothing like the constantly concerned woman that she had been introduced to 8 years ago.

Looking at her she saw someone she knew she could trust with her secrets.

"Do you mind listening for a bit?" She sat down on the porch steps as she looked up at her.

"Well uh...I'm not in a rush or anything so no...I don't mind listening..." stepping down she joined her on the step as she gently placed an arm around her shoulder, "so what is it?"

"Well...I guess I should start at the beginning huh?"

"Probably," she agreed, the smile returning.

"Very well," looking down at her hands Molly took a deep breath before returning her gaze back to her, "then perhaps I should start with how I was raised by humans..."

 _Molly and the others will return..._


End file.
